GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REESE 


American 


EDITED    BY 


JOHN  T.  MORSE,  JR. 


3tnirnta» 


JOHN    RANDOLPH 


BY 


HENRY  ADAMS 


UNIVERSITY 


BOSTON 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

New  York:    11   East  Seventeenth   Street 


1883 


Copyright,  1882, 
BY  HENRY  ADAMS. 


All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge: 
Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  II.  0.  Houghton  and  Company. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
5Touxn 


CHAPTER  II. 
VIRGINIAN  POLITICS 25 

CHAPTER  III. 
IN  HARNESS 48 

CHAPTER   IV. 
A  CENTRALIZING   STATESMAN 75 

CHAPTER   V. 
VAULTING  AMBITION .96 

CHAPTER   VI. 
YAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE 123 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  QUARREL 154 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

MONEOE     AND    THE    SMITHS 1*1 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
"A  NUISANCE  AND  A  CURSE" 219 

CHAPTER  X. 
ECCENTRICITIES 249 

CHAPTER  XL 
BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE 268 

CHAPTER  XIL 
"  FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED  " 292 


((UNIVEESITY) 


JOHN  EAKDOLPH. 
CHAPTER  I. 

YOUTH. 

WILLIAM,  first  American  ancestor  of  the  in 
numerable  Randolphs  of  Virginia,  made  his 
appearance  there  at  some  time  not  precisely 
known,  but  probably  about  the  year  1660. 
The  books  tell  us  neither  whence  he  came, 
who  he  was,  why  he  emigrated,  nor  what  were 
his  means ;  but  "  William  Randolph,  gentle 
man,  of  Turkey  Island,"  originally  from  War 
wickshire,  or  from  Yorkshire,  at  all  events 
from  England,  unless  it  were  from  Scotland, 
married  Mary  Isham,  of  Bermuda  Hundred, 
and  by  her  had  seven  sons  and  two  daughters, 
whose  descendants  swarmed  like  bees  in  the 
Virginian  hive.  Turkey  Island,  just  above  the 
junction  of  the  James  with  the  Appomattox, 
lies  unnoticed  by  mankind  except  at  long  in 
tervals  of  a  hundred  years.  In  1675,  about 
the  time  when  William  Randolph  began  his 
prosperous  career  there,  Nathaniel  Bacon  lived 
1 


2  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

on  his  plantation  at  Curies,  adjoining  Ran 
dolph's  estate.  Bacon's  famous  rebellion  broke 
out  in  this  year,  and  in  1706,  according  to  the 
records  of  Henrico  County,  Curies,  after  es 
cheating  to  the  King,  had  come  into  the  hands 
of  William  Randolph's  sons.  The  world's 
attention,  however,  was  not  so  actively  drawn 
to  this  group  of  tobacco  plantations  by  Bacon's 
rebellion  as  by  Benedict  Arnold's  raid  in 
1781,  and  neither  of  these  bloody  and  destruc 
tive  disturbances  made  the  region  nearly  so 
famous  as  it  became  on  June  30,  1862,  when 
fifty  thousand  Northern  troops,  beaten,  weary, 
and  disorganized,  converged  at  Malvern  Hill  and 
Turkey  Island  Bridge,  and  the  next  day  fought 
a  battle  which  saved  their  army  and  perhaps 
their  cause,  without  a  thought  or  a  care  for 
the  dust  of  forgotten  Randolphs,  on  which  they 
were  trampling  in  this  cradle  of  the  race.  They 
were  not  more  indifferent  than  the  family  itself, 
for  long  before  this  time  the  descendants  of 
William  Randolph  had  grown  up,  multiplied, 
accumulated  great  possessions  in  slaves  and 
land,  then  slowly  waned  in  fortune,  and  at  last 
disappeared,  until  not  an  acre  of  land  on  the 
James  or  the  Appomattox  was  owned  by  a  Ran 
dolph. 

William's  fourth  son,  Richard,  who  lived  at 
Curies,  Nathaniel   Bacon's  confiscated  planta- 


YOUTH.  8 

tion,  and  who  married  Jane  Boiling,  a  great- 
great-granddaughter  of  John  Rolfe  and  Poca- 
hontas,  disposed  by  will,  in  1742,  of  forty  thou 
sand  acres  of  the  choicest  lands  on  the  James, 
Appomattox,  and  Roanoke  rivers,  including 
Matoax,  about  two  miles  west  of  Petersburg, 
and  Bizarre,  a  plantation  some  ninety  miles 
further  up  the  Appomattox  River.  John,  the 
youngest  son  of  this  Richard  of  Curies,  born  in 
1742,  married  in  1769  Frances  Bland,  daugh 
ter  of  a  neighbor  who  lived  at  Cawsons,  on  a 
promontory  near  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox, 
looking  north  up  the  James  River  to  Turkey 
Island.  Here  on  June  2,  1773,  their  youngest 
child,  John,  was  born. 

In  these  last  days  of  colonial  history,  the 
Randolphs  were  numerous  and  powerful,  a  fam 
ily  such  as  no  one  in  Virginia  would  wish  to 
offend ;  for  aristocracy  always  ran  riot  in  this 
atmosphere,  and  the  Randolphs  were  as  mad  as 
the  maddest.  There  was  even  a  Randolph  of 
Wilton,  another  of  Chatsworth,  as  though  they 
meant  to  rival  Pembrokes  and  Devonshires. 
There  was  a  knight  in  the  family,  old  Sir  John, 
sixth  son  of  William  of  Turkey  Island,  and 
father  of  Peyton  Randolph,  who  was  afterwards 
president  of  the  American  Congress.  There 
was  a  historian,  perhaps  the  best  the  State  has 
yet  produced,  old  William  Stith.  There  were 


4  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

many  members  of  the  Council  and  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  an  innumerable  list  of  blood  re 
lations  and  a  score  of  allied  families,  among  the 
rest  that  of  Jefferson.  Finally,  the  King's  At 
torney-General  was  at  this  time  a  Randolph, 
and  took  part  with  the  crown  against  the  col 
ony.  The  world  upon  which  the  latest  Ran 
dolph  baby  opened  his  eyes  was,  so  far  as  his 
horizon  stretched,  a  world  of  cousins,  a  colonial 
aristocracy  all  his  own,  supported  by  tobacco 
plantations  and  negro  labor,  by  colonial  pat 
ronage  and  royal  favor,  or,  to  do  it  justice,  by 
audacity,  vigor,  and  mind. 

This  small  cheerful  world,  which  was  in  its 
way  a  remarkable  phenomenon,  and  produced 
the  greatest  list  of  great  names  ever  known 
this  side  of  the  ocean,  was  about  to  suffer  a 
wreck  the  more  fatal  and  hopeless  because  no 
skill  could  avert  it,  and  the  dissolution  was 
so  quiet  and  subtle  that  no  one  could  protect 
himself  or  secure  his  children.  The  boy  was 
born  at  the  moment  when  the  first  shock  was 
at  hand.  His  father  died  in  1775;  his  mother, 
in  1778,  married  Mr.  St.  George  Tucker,  of  Ber 
muda,  and  meanwhile  the  country  had  plunged 
into  a  war  which  in  a  single  moment  cut  that 
connection  with  England  on  which  the  old 
Virginian  society  depended  for  its  tastes,  fash 
ions,  theories,  and  above  all  for  its  aristocratic 


YOUTH. 


status  in  politics  and  law.  The  Declaration 
of  Independence  proclaimed  that  America  was 
no  longer  to  be  English,  but  American ;  that  is 
to  say,  democratic  and  popular  in  all  its  parts, 
—  a  fact  equivalent  to  a  sentence  of  death  upon 
old  Virginian  society,  and  foreboding  dissolu 
tion  to  the  Randolphs  and  their  pride,  until 
they  should  learn  to  master  the  new  conditions 
of  American  life.  For  passing  through  such  a 
maelstrom  a  century  was  not  too  short  an  allow 
ance  of  time,  yet  this  small  Randolph  boy,  not 
a  strong  creature  at  best,  was  born  just  as  the 
downward  plunge  began,  and  every  moment 
made  the  outlook  drearier  and  more  awful. 

On  January  3,  1781,  he  was  at  Matoax  with 
his  mother,  who  only  five  days  before  had  been 
confined.  Suddenly  it  was  said  that  the  Brit 
ish  were  coming.  They  soon  appeared,  under 
the  command  of  Brigadier-General  Benedict 
Arnold,  and  scared  Virginia  from  Yorktown 
to  the  mountains.  They  hunted  the  Governor 
like  a  tired  fox,  and  ran  him  out  of  his  famous 
mountain  fastness  at  Monticello,  breaking  up 
his  government  and  mortifying  him,  until  Mr. 
Jefferson  at  last  refused  to  reassume  the  office, 
and  passed  his  trust  over  to  a  stronger  hand. 
St.  George  Tucker  at  Matoax  thought  it  time 
to  seek  safer  quarters,  and  hurried  his  wife, 
with  her  little  baby,  afterwards  the  well-known 


6  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Judge  Henry  St.  George  Tucker,  away  to  Bi 
zarre,  ninety  miles  up  the  Appomattox. 

Here  he  left  her  and  went  to  fight  Cornwallis 
at  Guilford.  Henceforward  the  little  Ran 
dolphs  ran  wild  at  Bizarre.  Schooling  they  had 
none,  and  discipline  was  never  a  part  of  Vir 
ginian  education.  Mrs.  Tucker,  their  mother, 
was  an  affectionate  and  excellent  woman  ;  Mr. 
Tucker  a  kind  and  admirable  step-father ;  as 
for  the  boy  John  Randolph,  it  is  said  that  he 
had  a  warm  and  amiable  disposition,  although 
the  only  well-authenticated  fact  recorded  about 
his  infancy  is  that  before  his  fifth  year  he  was 
known  to  swoon  in  a  mere  fit  of  temper,  and 
could  with  difficulty  be  restored.  The  life  of 
boyhood  in  Virginia  was  not  well  fitted  for 
teaching  self-control  or  mental  discipline,  qual 
ities  which  John  Randolph  never  gained  ;  but 
in  return  for  these  the  Virginian  found  other 
advantages  which  made  up  for  the  loss  of  meth 
odical  training.  Every  Virginian  lad,  especially 
on  such  a  remote  plantation  as  Bizarre,  lived  in 
a  boy's  paradise  of  indulgence  :  he  fished  and 
shot;  he  rode  like  a  young  monkey,  and  his 
memory  was  crammed  with  the  genealogy  of 
every  well-bred  horse  in  the  State ;  he  grew  up 
among  dogs  and  negroes,  master  equally  of 
both ;  he  knew  all  about  the  prices  of  wheat, 
tobacco,  and  slaves;  he  picked  up  much  that 


YOUTH.  7 

was  bad  and  brutal  in  his  contact  with  inferi 
ors  ;  he  backed  his  favorite  bird  at  a  cocking- 
main,  and  looked  on  with  keen  interest  at  the 
inevitable  old-fashioned  rough-and-tumble  fight, 
where  the  champions  did  not  use,  as  now,  the 
knife  or  the  pistol,  but  fixed  their  thumbs  in 
each  other's  eye  sockets,  and  bit  off  each  other's 
noses  and  ears.  All  these  accomplishments  and 
many  others  of  a  like  character  were  familiar  to 
most  young  Virginians  whose  parents  did  not 
send  them  early  to  Europe  or  to  the  North, 
and,  with  the  rest,  a  habit  of  drinking  as  freely 
as  they  talked,  and  of  talking  as  freely  as  the 
utmost  license  of  the  English  language  would 
allow.  The  climate  was  genial,  the  soil  gener 
ous,  the  life  easy,  but  of  careful  mental  training 
there  was  not  much  even  in  the  best  days  of 
Virginia.  Indeed,  there  was  in  Europe  itself 
little  enough  outside  of  a  few  universities,  them 
selves  relics  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

There  was,  however,  another  side  to  Virgin 
ian  life,  which  helped  to  civilize  the  young  sav 
ages,  —  the  domestic  and  family  relation  ;  the 
influence  of  father  and  mother,  of  women,  of 
such  reading  as  the  country-house  offered,  of 
music,  dancing,  and  the  table.  John  Randolph 
was  born  and  bred  among  gentlefolk.  Mr. 
Tucker  had  refinement,  and  his  wife,  along  with 
many  other  excellent  qualities,  had  two  very 


8  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

feminine  instincts,  family  pride  and  religion. 
To  inoculate  "the  imagination  of  her  son  with 
notions  of  family  pride  was  an  easy  task,  and 
to  show  him  how  to  support  the  dignity  of  his 
name  was  a  natural  one.  "  Never  part  with 
your  land,"  was  her  solemn  injunction,  which 
he  did  not  forget ;  "  keep  your  land,  and  your 
land  will  keep  you."  This  was  the  English 
theory,  and  Randolph  acted  on  it  through  life, 
although  it  was  becoming  more  and  more  evi 
dent,  with  every  passing  year,  that  the  best 
thing  to  be  done  with  Virginian  land  at  the  rul 
ing  prices  was  to  part  with  it.  His  passion  for 
land  became  at  last  sheer  avarice,  a  quality  so 
rare  in  Virginia  as  to  be  a  virtue,  and  he  went 
on  accumulating  plantation  upon  plantation 
without  paying  his  debts,  while  the  land,  worth 
very  little  at  best,  was  steadily  becoming  as 
worthless  as  the  leaves  which  every  autumn 
shook  from  its  forests.  Not  an  acre  of  the  forty 
thousand  which  his  grandfather  bequeathed 
now  belongs  to  a  Randolph,  but  the  Randolphs 
or  any  one  else  might  have  bought  back  the 
whole  of  it  for  a  song  at  any  time  within  half 
a  century. 

Thus  the  boy  took  life  awry  from  the  start ; 
he  sucked  poison  with  his  mother's  milk.  Not 
so  easy  a  task,  however,  was  it  for  her  to  teach 
him  her  other  strong  instinct;  for,  although 


YOUTH.  9 

he  seems  really  to  have  loved  his  mother  as 
much  as  he  loved  any  one,  he  was  perverse  in 
childhood  as  in  manhood,  and  that  his  mother 
should  try  to  make  him  religious  seems  to 
have  been  reason  enough  for  his  becoming 
a  vehement  deist.  At  what  age  he  took  this 
bent  is  nowhere  said  ;  perhaps  a  little  later, 
when  he  went  for  a  few  months  to  school 
at  Williamsburg,  the  focus  of  Virginian  deism. 
At  Bizarre  he  seems  rather  to  have  turned 
towards  story-books  and  works  that  appealed 
to  his  imagination  ;  the  kind  of  reading  he 
would  be  apt  to  find  in  the  cupboards  of  Vir 
ginian  houses,  and  such  as  a  boy  with  fits  of 
moodiness  and  a  lively  imagination  would  be 
likely  to  select.  Thus  he  is  said  to  have  read, 
before  his  eleventh  year,  the  Arabian  Nights, 
Shakespeare,  Homer,  Don  Quixote,  Gil  Bias, 
Plutarch's  Lives,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Gulliver, 
Tom  Jones.  The  chances  are  a  thousand  to  one 
that  to  this  list  may  be  added  Peregrine  Pickle, 
the  Newgate  Calendar,  Moll  Flanders,  and  Rod 
erick  Random.  Whether  Paradise  Lost,  or 
Sir  Charles  Grandison  and  Pamela,  were  soon 
added  to  the  number,  we  are  not  told ;  but 
it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that,  among  these  old, 
fascinating  volumes,  then  found  in  every  Vir 
ginian  country-place  as  in  every  English  one, 
Randolph  never  met  with  one  or  two  books 


10  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

which  might  have  been  seen  in  any  New  Eng 
land  farm-house,  where  the  freer  literature 
would  have  been  thought  sinful  and  heathenish. 
He  never  saw  and  never  would  have  read  the 
Pilgrim's  Progress  or  the  Saint's  Rest  ;  he 
would  have  recoiled  from  every  form  of  Puri 
tanism  and  detested  every  affectation  of  sanc 
tity. 

The  kind  of  literary  diet  on  which  the  boy 
thus  fed  was  not  the  healthiest  or  best  for  a 
nature  like  his ;  but  it  made  the  literary  educa 
tion  of  many  a  man  who  passed  through  life, 
looked  on  by  his  fellows  as  well  read  with  no 
wider  range  than  this ;  and  as  Randolph  had  a 
quick  memory  he  used  to  the  utmost  what  he 
had  thus  gained.  His  cleverest  illustrations 
were  taken  from  Shakespeare  and  Fielding.  In 
other  literature  he  was  well  versed,  according 
to  the  standards  of  the  day :  he  read  his  Gib 
bon,  Hume,  and  Burke  ;  knew  English  history, 
and  was  at  home  in  the  English  peerage  ;  but 
it  was  to  Shakespeare  and  Fielding  that  his  im 
agination  naturally  turned,  and  in  this,  as  in 
other  things,  he  was  a  true  Virginian,  a  son  of 
the  soil  and  the  time. 

As  he  grew  a  few  years  older,  and  looked 
about  him  on  the  world  in  which  he  was  to  play 
a  part,  he  saw  little  but  a  repetition  of  his  own 
surroundings.  When  the  Revolutionary  War 


- 
YOUTH.  11 

closed,  in  1783,  he  was  ten  years  old,  and 
during  the  next  five  years  he  tried  to  pick 
up  an  education.  America  was  then  a  small, 
straggling,  exhausted  country,  without  a  gov 
ernment,  a  nationality,  a  capital,  or  even  a 
town  of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants  ;  a  country 
which  had  not  the  means  of  supplying  such  an 
education  as  the  young  man  wanted,  however 
earnestly  he  tried  for  it.  His  advantages  were 
wholly  social,  and  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
they  were  great.  He  had  an  immense  family 
connection,  which  gave  him  confidence  and  a 
sense  of  power ;  from  his  birth  surrounded  by 
a  society  in  itself  an  education,  he  was  accus 
tomed  to  the  best  that  Virginia  had,  and  Vir 
ginia  had  much  that  was  best  on  the  continent. 
He  saw  about  him  that  Virginian  gentry  which 
was  the  child  of  English  squirarchy,  and  repro 
duced  the  high  breeding  of  Bolingbroke  and  Sir 
Charles  Grandison  side  by  side  with  the  coarse 
ness  of  Swift  and  Squire  Western.  The  con 
trasts  were  curious,  in  this  provincial  aristoc 
racy,  between  old-fashioned,  overstrained  affec 
tations  of  courtesy  and  culture  and  the  rough 
brutality  of  plantation  habits.  On  one  side 
the  Virginian  might  be  as  brutal  as  the  rough 
est  cub  that  ever  ran  loose  among  the  negro 
cabins  of  a  tobacco  plantation ;  he  might  be 
violent,  tyrannical,  vicious,  cruel,  and  licentious 


12  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

in  language  as  in  morals,  while  at  the  same 
'time  trained"  to  habits  of  good  society,  and 
sincerely  feeling  that  exaggerated  deference 
which  it  was  usual  to  affect  towards  ladies ;  he 
might  be  well  read,  fond  of  intelligent  con 
versation,  consumed  by  ambition,  or  devoured 
by  self-esteem.  His  manners  were  deferen 
tial,  mild,  and  charming  when  at  their  best, 
and  intolerable  when  the  spirit  of  arrogance 
seized  him.  Nowhere  could  be  found  a  school 
of  more  genial  and  simpler  courtesy  than<  that 
which  produced  the  great  men  and  women  of 
Virginia,  but  it  had  its  dangers  and  affecta 
tions  ;  it  was  often  provincial  and  sometimes 
absurd. 

John  Randolph,  the  embodiment  of  all  these 
contrasts  and  peculiarities,  was  a  type  recog 
nized  and  understood  by  every  Virginian.  To 
a  New  England  man,  on  the  contrary,  the  type 
was  unintelligible  and  monstrous.  The  New 
Englander  had  his  own  code  of  bad  manners, 
and  was  less  tolerant  than  the  Virginian  of 
whatever  varied  from  it.  As  the  character 
of  Don  Quixote  was  to  Cervantes  clearly  a 
natural  and  possible  product  of  Spanish  char 
acter,  so  to  the  people  of  Virginia  John  Ran 
dolph  was  a  representative  man,  with  qualities 
exaggerated  but  genuine ;  and  even  these  exag 
gerations  struck  a  chord  of  popular  sympathy 


YOUTH.  13 

his  very  weaknesses  were  caricatures  of  Virgin 
ian  failings  ;  Ins  genius  was  in  some  degree  a 
caricature  of  Virginian  genius ;  and  thus  the 
boy  grew  up  to  manhood,  as  pure  a  Virginian  / 
Quixote  as  ever  an  American  Cervantes  could 
have  conceived. 

In  the  summer  of  1781  he  had  a  few  months' 
schooling,  and  afterwards  was  again  at  school, 
about  one  year,  at  Williamsburg,  till  the  spring 
of  1784,  when  his  parents  took  him  on  a  visit  to 
Bermuda,  the  home  of  his  step-father's  family. 
In  the  autumn  of  1787  he  was  sent  to  Prince 
ton,  where  he  passed  a  few  months ;  the  next 
year,  being  now  fifteen,  he  went  for  a  short  time 
to  Columbia  College,  in  New  York.  This  was  • 
all  the  schooling  he  ever  had,  and,  excepting 
perhaps  a  little  Latin,  it  is  not  easy  to  say  what 
he  learned.  "  I  am  an  ignorant  man,  sir,"  was 
his  own  statement.  So  he  was,  and  so,  for  that 
matter,  are  the  most  learned :  but  Randolph's 
true  ignorance  was  not  want  of  book-learning ; 
he  had  quite  as  much  knowledge  of  that  kind 
as  he  could  profitably  use  in  America,  and  his 
mind  was  naturally  an  active  one,  could  he  only 
have  put  it  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  of 
his  country.  At  this  time  of  life,  when  the 
ebullition  of  youth  was  still  violent,  he  was  cu 
riously  torn  by  the  struggle  between  conserva 
tive  and  radical-  instincts.  He  read  Voltaire, 


14  JOHN  RANDOLPH, 

Rousseau,  Hume,  Gibbon,  and  was  as  deistical 
in  his  opinions  as  any  of  them.  The  Christian 
religion  was  hateful  to  him,  as  it  was  to  Tom 
Paine ;  he  loved  everything  hostile  to  it.  "  Very 
early  in  life,"  he  wrote  thirty  years  afterwards, 
"  I  imbibed  an  absurd  prejudice  in  favor  of  Ma- 
hometanism  and  its  votaries.  The  crescent  had 
a  talismanic  effect  on  my  imagination,  and  I  re 
joiced  in  all  its  triumphs  over  the  cross  (which 
I  despised),  as  I  mourned  over  its  defeats;  and 
Mahomet  II.  himself  did  not  more  exult  than 
I  did  when  the  crescent  was  planted  on  the 
dome  of  St.  Sophia,  and  the  cathedral  of  the 
Constantines  was  converted  into  a  Turkish 
mosque."  This  was  radical  enough  to  suit 
Paine  or  Saint  Just,  but  it  was  the  mere  intel 
lectual  fashion  of  the  day,  as  over-vehement 
and  unhealthy  as  its  counterpart,  the  religious 
spasms  of  his  later  life.  His  mind  was  always 
controlled  by  his  feelings  ;  its  antipathies  were 
stronger  than  its  sympathy ;  it  was  restless  and 
uneasy,  prone  to  contradiction  and  attached  to 
paradox.  In  such  a  character  there  is  nothing 
very  new,  for  at  least  nine  men  out  of  ten, 
whose  intelligence  is  above  the  average,  have 
felt  the  same  instincts  :  the  impulse  to  contra 
dict  is  as  familiar  as  dyspepsia  or  nervous  excit 
ability  ;  the  passion  for  referring  every  compari 
son  to  one's  self  is  a  primitive  quality  of  mind 


YOUTH.  15 

by  no  means  confined  to  women  and  children  ; 
but  what  was  to  be  expected  when  such  a  tem 
perament,  exaggerated  and  unrestrained,  full 
of  self-contradictions  and  stimulated  by  acute 
reasoning  powers,  remarkable  audacity  and 
quickness,  violent  and  vindictive  temper,  and  a 
morbid  constitution,  was  planted  in  a  Virginian, 
a  slave-owner,  a  Randolph,  just  when  the  world 
was  bursting  into  fire  and  flame  ? 

Of  course,  while  at  college,  the  young  Ran 
dolph  had  that  necessary  part  of  a  Southern 
gentleman's  education  in  those  days,  a  duel,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  was  given 
to  brawls,  and  in  early  life  his  temper  was 
rather  affectionate  than  harsh.  His  friendships 
were  strong,  and  seem  to  have  been  permanent. 
He  was  intelligent  and  proud,  and  may  have 
treated  with  contempt  whatever  he  thought 
mean  or  contemptible.  He  certainly  did  quar 
rel  with  a  Virginian  fellow-student,  and  then 
shot  him,  but  no  one  can  now  say  what  excuse 
or  justification  he  may  have  had.  His  oppo 
nent's  temper  in  after  life  was  quite  as  violent 
as  his  own,  and  the  quarrel  itself  rose  from  a 
dispute  over  the  mere  pronunciation  of  a  word. 

In  the  year  1788  he  was  at  college  in  New 
York  with  his  elder  brother  Richard,  and  we 
get  a  glimpse  of  him  in  a  letter  to  his  step 
father,  dated  on  Christmas  Day,  1788  :  — 


16  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

"  Be  well  assured,  my  dear  sir,  our  expenses  since 
our  arrival  here  have  been  enormous,  and  by  far 
greater  than  our  estate,  especially  loaded  as  it  is  with 
debt,  can  bear ;  however,  I  natter  myself,  my  dear 
papa,  that  upon  looking  over  the  accounts  you  will  find 
that  my  share  is  by  comparison  trifling,  and  hope  that 
by  the  wise  admonitions  of  so  affectionate  a  parent, 
and  one  who  has  our  welfare  and  interest  so  much  at 
heart,  we  may  be  able  to  shun  the  rock  of  prodigal 
ity  upon  which  so  many  people  continually  split,  and 
by  which  the  unhappy  victim  is  reduced  not  only  to 
poverty,  but  also  to  despair  and  all  the  horrors  at 
tending  it." 

This  was  unusual  language  for  a  Virginian 
boy  of  fifteen!  It  would  have  been  safe  to 
prophesy  that  the  rock  of  prodigality  was  not 
one  of  his  dangers.  Down  to  the  last  day  of 
his  life  he  talked  in  the  same  strain,  always 
complaining  of  this  old  English  indebtedness, 
living  with  careful  economy,  but  never  willing 
to  pay  his  debt,  and  never  able  to  resist  the 
temptation  of  buying  land  and  slaves.  The 
letter  goes  on  :  — 

"  Brother  Richard  writes  you  that  I  am  lazy.  I 
assure  you,  dear  papa,  he  has  been  egregiously  mis 
taken.  I  attend  every  lecture  that  the  class  does. 
Not  one  of  the  professors  have  ever  found  me  dull 
with  my  business,  or  even  said  that  I  was  irregular. 

.    .  If  brother  Richard  had  written  you  that  I  did 


YOUTH.  17 

nothing  all  the  vacation,  he  would  have  been  much 
in  the  dark ;  neither  was  it  possible  for  me.  We 
lived  in  this  large  building  without  a  soul  in  it  but 
ourselves,  and  it  was  so  desolate  and  dreary  that  I 
could  not  bear  to  be  in  it.  I  was  always  afraid  that 
some  robber,  of  which  we  have  a  plenty,  was  coming 
to  kill  me,  after  they  made  a  draught  on  the  house." 

Nervous,  excitable,  loving  warmly,  hating 
more  warmly  still,  easily  affected  by  fears, 
whether  of  murderers  or  of  poverty,  lazy  ac 
cording  to  his  brother  Richard,  neither  dull 
nor  irregular,  but  timid,  according  to  his  own 
account,  this  letter  represents  him  as  he  showed 
himself  to  his  parents,  in  rather  an  amiable 
light.  It  closes  with  a  suggestion  of  politics  : 
"  Be  so  good,  my  dear  sir,  when  it  is  conven 
ient,  to  send  me  the  debate  of  the  convention  in 
our  State."  He  was  too  true  a  Virginian  not 
to  oppose  the  new  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  which  Patrick  Henry  and  George  Mason 
had  so  vehemently  resisted;  but  that  Consti 
tution  was  now  adopted,  and  was  about  to  be  set 
in  motion.  From  this  moment  a  new  school 
was  provided  for  the  boy,  far  more  interesting 
to  him  than  the  lecture  rooms  of  Columbia  Col 
lege;  a  school  which  he  attended  with  extraor 
dinary  amusement  and  even  fascination. 

"I  was  at  .Federal  Hall,"  said  he  once  in  a 
speech  to  his  constituents ;  "  I  saw  Washing- 


18  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ton,  but  could  not  hear  him  take  the  oath  to 
support  the  federal  Constitution.  The  Consti 
tution  was  in  its  chrysalis  state.  I  saw  what 
Washington  did  not  see,  but  two  other  men  in 
Virginia  saw  it,  —  George  Mason  and  Patrick 
Henry,  —  the  secret  sting  which  lurked  beneath 
the  gaudy  pinions  of  the  butterfly."  Wiser 
men  than  he,  not  only  in  Virginia,  but  else 
where,  saw  and  dreaded  the  centralizing,  over 
whelming  powers  of  the  new  government,  and 
are  not  to  be  blamed  for  their  fears.  Without 
boldly  assuming  that  America  was  a  country 
to  which  old  rules  did  not  apply  ;  that  she  stood 
by  herself,  above  law,  it  was  impossible  to  look 
without  alarm  at  the  tendency  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  for  history,  from  beginning  to  end,  was 
one  long  warning  against  the  abuse  of  just  such 
powers.  Were  Randolph  alive  to-day  he  would 
probably  feel  that  his  worst  fears  were  realized. 
From  his  point  of  view  as  a  Virginian,  a  slave 
owner,  a  Randolph,  it  was  true  that,  although 
the  Constitution  was  not  a  butterfly  and  did 
not  carry  poison  under  its  wings,  —  for  only  at 
Roanoke  could  a  butterfly  be  found  with  a 
secret  sting  in  such  a  part  of  its  person,  —  it 
did  carry  a  fearful  power  for  good  or  evil  in 
the  tremendous  sweep  of  its  pinions  and  the 
terrible  grip  of  its  claws. 

Another  little  incident  sharpened  Randolph's 


YOUTH.  19 

perception  of  the  poison  which  lay  in  the  new 
system.  « I  was  in  New  York,"  said  he  nearly 
forty  years  afterwards,  "when  John  Adams 

took  his  seat  as  Vice-President.     I  recollect 

for  I  was  a  school-boy  at  the  time  —  attending 
the  lobby  of  Congress  when  I  ought   to  have 
been  at  school.     I    remember   the  manner  in 
which  my  brother  was  spurned  by  the  coach 
man  of  the  then  Vice-President  for  coming  too 
near  the  arms  emblaz6ned  on  the  scutcheon  of 
the  vice-regal  carriage.     Perhaps  I  may  have 
some  of   this   old    animosity  rankling   in    my 
heart,  .  .  .  coming  from  a  race  who  are  known 
never  to  forsake  a   friend   or  forgive  a  foe." 
The  world  would  be  an  uncomfortable  residence 
for  elderly  people,  if  they  were  to  be  objects 
of  life-long  personal  hatred  to  every  boy  over 
whose    head    their    coachman,    without    their 
knowledge,    had    once   snapped    a   whip,    and 
especially  so  if,  as  in  this  case,  the  feud  were 
carried  down  to  the  next  generation.    Of  course 
the  sting  did  not  lie  in  the  coachman's  whip. 
Had  the   carriage   been   that   of    a    Governor 
of  Virginia  or  a  Lord  Chancellor  of  England 
or  had  the  coachman  of  his  own  old-fashioned 
four-horse  Virginian   chariot    been   to  blame, 
John    Randolph  would  never  have   given    the 
matter  another  thought-,  but  that  his  brother, 
a  Virginian  gentleman  of  ancient  family  and 


20  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

large  estates,  should  be  struck  by  the  servant 
of  a  Yankee  school-master,  who  had  neither 
family,  wealth,  nor  land,  but  was  a  mere  shoot 
of  a  psalm-singing  democracy,  and  that  this 
man  should  lord  it  over  Virginia  and  Virgin 
ians,  was  maddening;  and  the  sight  of  that 
Massachusetts  whip  was  portentous,  terrible, 
inexpressible,  to  the  boy,  like  the  mysterious 
solitude  of  his  great  school-house,  which  drove 
him  out  into  the  street  in  fear  of  robbery  and 
murder. 

The  Attorney-General  of  the  new  govern 
ment  was  a  Randolph,  — Edmund,  son  of  John, 
and  grandson  of  Sir  John,  who  was  brother  to 
Richard  of  Curies,  —  and  when,  in  1790,  the 
seat  of  administration  was  transferred  to  Phil 
adelphia,  John  Randolph  left  Columbia  College, 
and  went  to  Philadelphia  to  study  law  in  the 
Attorney-General's  train.  Here,  excepting  for 
occasional  visits  to  Virginia,  and  for  interruption 
by  yellow  fever,  he  remained  until  1794,  occu 
pying  himself  very  much  as  he  liked,  so  far  as 
is  now  to  be  learned.  He  was  not  pleased 
with  Mr.  Edmund  Randolph's  theories  in  the 
matter  of  teaching  law.  He  studied  system 
atically  no  profession,  neither  law  nor  medi 
cine,  although  he  associated  with  students  of 
both,  and  even  attended  lectures.  He  seems 
to  have  enjoyed  the  life,  as  was  natural,  for 


YOUTH.  21 

Philadelphia  was  an  agreeable  city.  "  I  know," 
said  he  many  years  afterwards,  "  by  fatal  expe 
rience,  the  fascinations  of  a  town  life,  —  how 
they  estrange  the  mind  from  its  old  habits  and 
attachments."  This  "  fatal  experience  "  was 
probably  a  mere  figure  of  speech ;  so  far  as  can 
be  seen,  his  residence  in  New  York  and  Phila 
delphia  was  the  most  useful  part  of  his  youth, 
and  went  far  to  broaden  his  mind.  A  few  of 
his  letters  at  this  period  are  extant,  but  they 
tell  little  except  that  he  was  living  with  the 
utmost  economy  and  was  deeply  interested  in 
politics,  taking,  of  course,  a  strongly  anti-feder 
alist  side. 

In  April,  1794,  he  returned  to  Virginia  to  as 
sume  control  of  his  property.  In  after  years  he 
complained  bitterly  of  having  "  been  plundered 
and  oppressed  during  my  nonage,  and  left  to 
enter  upon  life  overwhelmed  with  a  load  of 
debt  which  the  profits  of  a  nineteen  years'  mi 
nority  ought  to  have  more  than  paid ;  and,  ig 
norant  as  I  was,  and  even  yet  am,  of  business, 
to  grope  my  way  without  a  clue  through  the 
labyrinth  of  my  father's  affairs  ;  and,  brought 
up  among  Quakers,  an  ardent  ami  des  noirs,  to 
scuffle  with  negroes  and  overseers  for  some 
thing  like  a  pittance  of  rent  and  profit  upon 
my  land  and  stock."  He  lived  with  his  elder 
brother  Richard,  who  was  now  married,  at  Bi- 


22  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

zarre,  near  Farmville,  a  place  better  known  to 
this  generation  as  the  town  from  which  General 
Grant  dated  his  famous  letter  calling  upon  Gen 
eral  Lee  for  a  surrender  of  the  Confederate  army 
of  northern  Virginia.  From  here  he  could  direct 
the  management  of  his  own  property  at  Roan- 
oke,  some  miles  to  the  southward,  while  he  en 
joyed  the  society  at  Bizarre  and  economized  his 
expenses. 

Nothing  further  is  recorded  of  his  life  until 
in  the  spring  of  1796  he  visited  his  friend 
Bryan  in  Georgia,  and  during  a  stay  in  Charles 
ton  came  under  the  notice  of  a  bookseller,  who 
has  recorded  the  impression  he  made :  "  A 
tall,  gawky-looking,  flaxen-haired  stripling,  ap 
parently  of  the  age  from  sixteen  to  eighteen, 
with  a  complexion  of  a  good  parchment  color, 
beardless  chin,  and  as  much  assumed  self-con 
fidence  as  any  two-footed  animal  I  ever  saw," 
in  company  with  a  gray-headed,  florid-corn  plex- 
ioned  old  gentleman,  whom  he  slapped  on  the 
back  and  called  Jack,  —  a  certain  Sir  John  Nes- 
bit,  a  Scotch  baronet,  with  whom  he  had  become 
intimate,  and  whom  he  beat  in  a  horse-race, 
each  riding  his  own  horse.  The  bookseller  at 
once  set  him  down  as  the  most  impudent  youth 
he  had  ever  seen,  but  was  struck  by  the  sud 
den  animation  which  at  moments  lighted  up 
lis  usually  dull  and  heavy  face. 


YOUTH.  23 

After  his  stay  at  Charleston,  he  went  on  to 
his  friend  Bryan's  in  Georgia,  where  he  proved 
his  convivial  powers,  as  in  South  Carolina  he 
had  proved  his  superiority  in  horse-racing. 
"  My  eldest  brother,"  wrote  Bryan  afterwards, 
"  still  bears  a  friendly  remembrance  of  the  rum 
ducking  you  gave  him."  This  visit  to  Georgia 
was  destined  to  have  great  influence  on  his  later 
career.  He  found  the  State  convulsed  with 
excitement  over  what  was  long  famous  as  the 
Yazoo  fraud.  The  legislature  of  Georgia,  in  the 
preceding  year,  had  authorized  the  sale  of  four 
immense  tracts  of  land,  supposed  to  embrace 
twenty  millions  of  acres,  for  five  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars,  to  four  land  companies.  It  was 
proved  that,  with  one  exception,  every  member 
of  the  legislature  who  voted  for  this  bill  was 
interested  in  the  purchase.  A  more  flagrant 
case  of  wholesale  legislative  corruption  had 
never  been  known,  and  when  the  facts  were 
exposed  the  whole  State  rose  in  indignation 
against  it,  elected  a  new  legislature,  annulled 
the  sale,  expunged  the  act  from  the  record, 
and  finally,  by  calling  a  convention,  made  the 
expunging  act  itself  a  part  of  the  state  constitu 
tion.  With  his  natural  vehemence  of  temper, 
Randolph  caught  all  the  excitement  of  his 
friends,  and  became  a  vehement  an ti- Yazoo  man, 
as  it  was  called,  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 


24  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

The  visit  to  Georgia  accomplished,  he  turne^ 
homewards  again,  and  was  suddenly  met  by 
the  crushing  news  that  his  brother  Richard  was 
dead.  In  every  way  this  blow  was  a  terrible 
one.  His  brother  had  been  his  oldest  and  clos 
est  companion.  The  widow  and  two  children, 
one  of  whom  was  deaf  and  dumb  from  birth, 
and  ultimately  became  insane,  besides  the 
whole  burden  of  the  joint  establishment,  now 
came  under  John  Randolph's  charge.  "  Then," 
to  use  his  own  words,  "  I  had  to  unravel  the 
tangled  skein  of  my  poor  brother's  difficulties 
and  debts.  His  sudden  and  untimely  death 
threw  upon  my  care,  helpless  as  I  was,  his  fam 
ily,  whom  I  tenderly  and  passionately  loved." 
Richard's  last  years  had  been  embittered  by  a 
strange  and  terrible  scandal,  resulting  in  a  fam 
ily  feud,  which  John,  with  his  usual  vehemence, 
made  his  own.  These  complications  would 
have  been  trying  to  any  man,  but  to  one  of  his 
peculiar  temper  they  were  a  source  of  infinite 
depression  and  despair. 


CHAPTER  II. 

VIRGINIAN  POLITICS. 

POLITICS  meanwhile  were  becoming  more 
and  more  violent.  The  negotiation  of  Jay's 
treaty  with  England,  which  took  place  in  1794, 
followed  by  its  publication  in  June,  1795,  and 
the  extraordinary  behavior  of  France,  threw  the 
country  into  a  state  of  alarming  excitement. 
Randolph  shared  in  the  indignation  of  those 
who  thought  the  treaty  a  disgraceful  one,  and 
there  is  a  story,  told  on  the  authority  of  his 
friends,  that  at  a  dinner,  pending  the  ratifica 
tion,  he  gave  as  a  toast,  "  George  Washington, 
—  may  he  be  damned  !  "  and  when  the  company 
declined  to  drink  it,  he  added,  "  if  he  signs 
Jay's  treaty."  No  one  can  fairly  blame  the 
opposition  to  that  treaty,  which  indeed  chal 
lenged  opposition;  and  that  Randolph  should 
have  opposed  it  hotly,  if  he  opposed  it  at  all, 
was  only  a  part  of  his  nature ;  but  none  the  less 
was  it  true  that  between  his  Anglican  tastes 
and  his  Gallican  policy  he  was  in  a  false  posi 
tion,  as  he  was  also  between  his  aristocratic 
prejudices  and  his  democratic  theories,  his  de- 


26  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

istical  doctrines  and  his  conservative  tempera 
ment,  his  interests  as  a  slave-owner  and  his 
theories  as  an  ami  des  noirs,  and  finally  in  the 
entire  delusion  which  possessed  his  mind  that  a 
Virginian  aristocracy  could  maintain  itself  in 
alliance  with  a  democratic  polity. 

Perhaps  these  flagrant  inconsistencies  might 
have  worked  out  ten  years  sooner  to  their  nat 
ural  result,  had  not  John  Adams  and  New 
England  now  stood  at  the  head  of  the  govern 
ment.  If  Randolph  could  wish  no  better  fate 
for  his  own  countryman,  Washington,  than 
that  he  might  be  damned,  one  may  easily  im 
agine  what  were  his  feelings  towards  Washing 
ton's  successor,  whose  coachman  had  cracked 
his  whip  over  Richard  Randolph.  For  thirty 
years  he  never  missed  a  chance  to  have  his 
fling  at  both  the  Adamses,  father  and  son; 
"the  cub,"  he  said,  "is  a  greater  bear  than 
the  old  one  ;  "  and  although  he  spared  no  prom 
inent  Virginian,  neither  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Monroe,  nor  Clay,  yet  the  only  per 
sons  against  whom  his  strain  of  invective  was 
at  all  seasons  copious,  continuous,  and  vehe 
ment  were  the  two  New  England  Presidents. 
To  do  him  justice,  there  was  every  reason,  in 
his  category  of  innate  prejudices,  for  the  an 
tipathy  he  felt ;  and  especially  in  regard  to  the 
administration  of  the  elder  Adams  there  was 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  27 

ample  ground  for  honest  divergence  of  opinion. 
For  one  moment  in  the  career  of  that  adminis 
tration  the  country  was  in  real  danger,  and 
opposition  became  almost  a  duty.  When  hos 
tilities  with  France  broke  out,  and  under  their 
cover  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  were  passed, 
backed  by  a  large  army,  with  the  scarcely  con 
cealed  object  of  overawing  threatened  resist 
ance  from  Virginia,  it  was  time  that  opposition 
should  be  put  in  power,  even  though  the  op 
position  had  itself  undertaken  to  nullify  acts 
of  Congress  and  to  prepare  in  secret  an  armed 
rebellion  against  the  national  government. 

Feeling  ran  high  in  Virginia  during  the  year 
1798.  Mr.  Madison  had  left  Congress,  but  both 
he  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  Vice-President,  were 
busy  in  organizing  their  party  for  what  was  too 
much  like  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  They 
induced  the  legislatures  of  Virginia  and  Ken 
tucky  to  assert  the  right  of  resistance  to  na 
tional  laws,  and  were  privy  to  the  preparations 
making  in  Virginia  for  armed  resistance ;  or  if 
they  were  not,  it  was  because  they  chose  to  be 
ignorant.  Monroe  was  certainly  privy  to  these 
warlike  preparations  ;  for,  in  the  year  1814, 
Randolph  attacked  in  debate  the  conscription 
project  recommended  by  Monroe,  then  Secre 
tary  of  War,  and  said,  "  Ask  him  what  he 
would  have  done,  whilst  Governor  of  Virginia, 


28  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

and  preparing  to  resist  federal  usurpation,  had 
such  an  attempt  been  made  by  Mr.  Adams  and 
his  ministers,  especially  in  1800  !  He  can  give 
the  answer."  At  a  still  later  day,  in  January, 
1817,'  Randolph  explained  the  meaning  of  his 
innuendo.  "  There  is  no  longer,"  said  he,  "  any 
cause  for  concealing  the  fact  that  the  grand 
armory  at  Richmond  was  built  to  enable  the 
State  of  Virginia  to  resist  by  force  the  en 
croachments  of  the  then  administration  upon 
her  indisputable  rights."  Naturally  Randolph 
himself  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with  such 
schemes,  and  it  would  be  surprising  if  he  and 
the  hot-headed  young  men  of  his  stamp  did 
not  drag  their  older  chiefs  into  measures  which 
these  would  have  gladly  avoided. 

Seizing  this  moment  to  enter  political  life, 
with  characteristic  audacity  he  struck  at  once 
for  the  highest  office  within  his  reach ;  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six,  he  announced  himself  a 
candidate  for  Congress.  Both  parties  were 
keenly  excited  over  the  contest  in  Virginia,  and 
the  federalists,  with  Washington  at  their  head, 
were  greatly  distressed  and  alarmed,  for  they 
knew  what  was  going  on,  and  after  opposing 
to  the  utmost  Mr.  Madison's  nullification  reso 
lutions,  straining  every  nerve  to  allay  the  ex 
citement,  as  a  last  resource  they  implored 
their  old  opponent,  Patrick  Henry,  to  come 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  29 

to  their  rescue.  Unwillingly  enough,  for  his 
strength  was  rapidly  failing,  Henry  consented. 
Nothing  in  his  life  was  nobler.  The  greatest 
orator  and  truest  patriot  in  Virginia,  a  sound 
and  consistent  democrat,  sprung  from  the  peo 
ple  and  adored  by  them,  this  persistent  and 
energetic  opponent  of  the  Constitution,  who 
had  denounced  its  over-swollen  powers  and  its 
"  awful  squint  towards  monarchy,"  now  came 
forward,  not  for  office,  nor  to  qualify  or  with 
draw  anything  he  had  ever  said,  but  with  his 
last  breath  to  warn  the  people  of  Virginia  not 
to  raise  their  hand  against  the  national  govern 
ment.  Washington  himself,  he  said,  would  lead 
an  army  to  put  them  down.  u  Where  is  the 
citizen  of  America  who  will  dare  lift  his  hand 
against  the  father  of  his  country  ?  No  !  you 
dare  not  do  it !  In  such  a  parricidal  attempt, 
the  steel  would  drop  from  your  nerveless  arm !  " 
In  the  light  of  subsequent  history  there  is  a 
solemn  and  pathetic  grandeur  in  this  dying 
appeal  of  the  old  revolutionary  orator,  by  the 
tavern  porch  of  Charlotte,  at  the  March  court, 
in  1799,  —  a  grandeur  partly  due  to  its  sim 
plicity,  but  more  to  its  association  with  the 
great  revolutionary  struggle  which  had  gone 
before,  and  with  the  awful  judgment  which 
fell  upon  this  doomed  region  sixty-five  years 
afterwards.  There  was,  too,  an  element  of 


30  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

contrast  in  the  composition;  for  when  the  old 
man  fell  back,  exhausted,  and  the  great  au 
dience  stood  silent  with  the  conviction  that 
they  had  heard  an  immortal  orator,  who  would 
never  speak  again,  make  an  appeal  such  as 
defied  reply,  then  it  was  that  John  Randolph's 
tall,  lean,  youthful  figure  climbed  upon  the 
platform  and  stood  up  before  the  crowd. 

What  he  said  is  not  recorded,  and  would  in 
no  case  be  very  material.  He  himself,  in  1817, 
avowed  in  Congress  the  main  burden  of  his  ad 
dress  :  "  I  was  asked  if  I  justified  the  establish 
ment  of  the  armory  for  the  purpose  of  opposing 
Mr.  Adams's  administration.  I  said  I  did  ;  that 
I  could  not  conceive  any  case  in  which  the  people 
could  not  be  intrusted  with  arms ;  and  that  the 
use  of  them  to  oppose  oppressive  measures  was 
in  principle  the  same,  whether  those  of  the  ad 
ministration  of  Lord  North  or  that  of  Mr.  Ad 
ams."  At  this  period  Randolph  did  not  talk 
in  the  crisp,  nervous,  pointed  language  of  his 
after  life,  but  used  the  heroic  style  which  is  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  writings  of  his  friend,  u  the 
greatest  man  I  ever  knew,  John  Thompson,  the 
immortal  author  of  the  letters  of  Curtius." 
The  speech  could  have  been  only  a  solemn  de 
fence  of  states'  rights ;  an  appeal  to  state  pride 
and  fear ;  an  ad  hominem  attack  on  Patrick 
Henry's  consistency,  and  more  or  less  effective 


I 

VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  31 

denunciation  of  federalists  in  general.  What 
he  could  not  answer,  and  what  must  become 
the  more  impressive  through  his  own  success, 
was  the  splendor  of  a  sentiment ;  history,  past 
and  coming ;  the  awe  that  surrounds  a  dying 
prophet  threatening  a  new  doom  deserved. 

Vague  tradition  reports  that  Randolph  spoke 
for  three  hours  and  held  his  audience;  he  rarely 
failed  with  a  Virginian  assembly,  and  in  this 
case  his  whole  career  depended  on  success. 
Tradition  further  says  that  Patrick  Henry  re 
marked  to  a  by-stander,  "  I  have  n't  seen  the 
little  dog  before,  since  he  was  at  school;  he 
was  a  great  atheist  then ; "  and  after  the  speech, 
shaking  hands  with  his  opponent,  he  added, 
"  Young  man,  you  call  me  father;  then,  my  son, 
I  have  something  to  say  unto  thee  :  Keep  jus 
tice^  keep  truth,  —  and  you  will  live  to  think 
differently." 

Randolph  never  did  live  to  think  differently, 
but  ended  as  he  began,  trying  to  set  bounds 
against  the  power  of  the  national  government, 
and  to  protect  those  bounds,  if  need  be,  by  force. 
Whether  his  opinions  were  wrong  or  right, 
criminal  or  virtuous,  is  another  matter,  which 
has  an  interest  far  deeper  than  his  personality, 
and  more  lasting  than  his  fame  ;  but  at  least 
those  opinions  were  at  that  time  expressed  with 
the  utmost  clearness  and  emphasis,  not  by  him, 


32  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

but  by  the  legislatures  of  more  than  one  State  ; 
and  as  he  was  not  their  author,  so  he  is  not  to 
be  judged  harshly  for  accepting  or  adhering  to 
them.  Doubtless  as  time  passed  and  circum 
stances  changed,  Randolph  figured  as  a  political 
Quixote  in  his  championship  of  states'  rights, 
which  became  at  the  end  his  hobby,  his  mania ; 
he  played  tricks  with  it  until  his  best  friends 
were  weary  and  disgusted ;  but,  so  far  as  his 
wayward  life  had  a  meaning  or  a  moral  pur 
pose,  it  lay  in  his  strenuous  effort  to  bar  the 
path  of  that  spirit  of  despotism  which  in  every 
other  age  and  land  had  perverted  government 
into  a  curse  and  a  scourge.  The  doctrine  of 
states'  rights  was  but  a  fragment  of  republican 
dogma  in  1800,  and  circumstances  atone  caused 
it  to  be  remembered  when  men  forgot  the 
system  of  opinions  of  which  it  made  a  part ; 
isolated,  degraded,  defiled  by  an  unnatural 
union  with  the  slave  power,  the  doctrine  be 
came  at  last  a  mere  phrase,  which  had  still  a 
meaning  only  to  those  who  knew  what  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  the  republicans  of  America  had 
once  believed ;  but  to  Randolph  it  was  always 
an  inspired  truth  which  purified  and  elevated 
his  whole  existence ;  the  faith  of  his  youth,  it 
seemed  to  him  to  sanctify  his  age ;  the  helmet 
of  this  Virginian  Quixote,  —  a  helmet  of  Mam- 
brino,  if  one  pleases,  —  it  was  in  Quixote's  eyes 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  33 

a  helmet  all  the  same.  What  warranted  such 
enthusiasm  in  this  threadbare  formula  of  words? 
Why  should  thousands  on  thousands  of  simple- 
minded,  honest,  plain  men  have  been  willing  to 
die  for  a  phrase  ? 

The  republican  party,  which  assumed  control 
of  the  government  in  1801,  had  taken  great 
pains  to   express   its   ideas  so  clearly  that  no 
man  could   misconceive  them.     At  the  bottom 
of  its  theories  lay,  as  a   foundation,  the  histor 
ical  fact  that  political  power  had,  in  all  experi 
ence,  tended  to  grow  at  the  expense  of  human 
liberty.      Every   government    tended   towards 
despotism;    contained   somewhere   a   supreme, 
irresponsible,  self-defined   power  called   sover 
eignty,   which    held   human   rights,   if   human 
rights   there  were,   at   its    mercy.     Americans 
believed   that   the   liberties   of   this    continent 
depended  on  fixing  a  barrier  against  this  su 
preme  central  power  called  national  sovereignty, 
which,  if  left  to  grow  unresisted,  would  repeat 
here  all  the  miserable  experiences  of  Europe, 
and,   falling  into  the  grasp  of  some  group  of 
men,   would  be  the  centre  of  a  military  tyr 
anny  ;  that,  to  resist  the  growth  of  this  power, 
it  was   necessary  to  withhold  authority  from 
the  government,  and  to  administer  it  with  the 
utmost  economy,  because  extravagance  gener 
ates  corruption,  and  corruption  generates  des- 


34  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

potism  ;  that  the  Executive  must  be  held  in 
check ;  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature 
strengthened,  the  Judiciary  curbed,  and  the 
general  powers  of  government  strictly  con 
strued  ;  but,  above  all,  the  States  must  be 
supported  in  exercising  all  their  reserved  rights, 
because,  in  the  last  resort,  the  States  alone 
could  make  head  against  a  central  sovereign  at 
Washington.  These  principles  implied  a  pol 
icy  of  peace  abroad  and  of  loose  ties  at  home, 
leaned  rather  towards  a  confederation  than  to 
wards  a  consolidated  union,  and  placed  the  good 
of  the  human  race  before  the  glory  of  a  mere 
nationality. 

In  the  famous  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolu 
tions  of  1798,  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Jefferson  set 
forth  these  ideas  with  a  care  and  an  authority 
which  gave  the  two  papers  a  character  hardly 
less  decisive  than  that  of  the  Constitution  itself. 
The  hand  which  drafted  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  drafted  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  ; 
the  hand  which  had  most  share  in  framing  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  framed  that 
gloss  upon  it  which  is  known  as  the  Virginia 
Resolutions  of  1798.  Kentucky  declared  her 
determination  "tamely  to  submit  to  undele- 
gated,  and  consequently  unlimited,  powers  in  no 
man  or  body  of  men  on  earth,"  and  it  warned 
the  government  at  Washington  that  acts  of 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  35 

undelegated  power,  "unless  arrested  on  the 
threshold,  may  tend  to  drive  these  States  into 
revolution  and  blood ; "  that  submission  to  such 
acts  "  would  be  to  surrender  the  form  of  gov 
ernment  we  have  chosen,  and  to  live  under  one 
deriving  its  powers  from  its  own  will,  and  not 
from  our  authority  ;  and  that  the  co-States,  re 
curring  to  their  natural  right  in  cases  not  made 
federal,  will  concur  in  declaring  these  acts  void 
and  of  no  force."  While  Kentucky  used  this 
energetic  language,  dictated  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
Virginia  echoed  her  words  with  the  emphasis 
of  a  mathematical  demonstration,  and  laid  down 
as  a  general  principle  of  the  constitutional 
compact  that,  "  in  case  of  a  deliberate,  palpable, 
and  dangerous  exercise  of  other  powers  not 
granted  by  the  said  compact,  the  States,  who 
are  the  parties  thereto,  have  the  right,  and  are 
in  duty  bound,  to  interpose  for  arresting  the 
progress  of  the  evil,  and  for  maintaining,  within 
their  respective  limits,  the  authorities,  rights, 
and  liberties  appertaining  to  them." 

Whether  this  was  good  constitutional  law 
need  not  be  discussed  at  present ;  at  all  events, 
it  was  the  doctrine  of  the  republican  party  in 
1800,  the  essence  of  republican  principles,  and 
for  many  years  the  undisputed  faith  of  a  vast 
majority  of  the  American  people.  The  princi 
ple  that  the  central  government  was  a  machine, 


36  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

established  by  the  people  of  the  States  for  cer 
tain  purposes  and  no  others,  was  itself  equiva 
lent  to  a  declaration  that  this  machine  could 
lawfully  do  nothing  but  what  it  was  expressly 
empowered  to  do  by  the  people  of  the  States  ; 
and  who  except  the  people  of  the  States  could 
properly  decide  when  the  machine  overstepped 
its  bounds?     To  make  the  Judiciary  a  final  ar 
biter  was  to  make  the  machine  master,  for  the 
Judiciary  was  not  only  a  part  of  the  machine, 
but  its  most  irresponsible  and  dangerous  part. 
The  class  of  lawyers,  trained,  as  they  were,  in 
the  common  law  of  England,  could  conceive  of 
no  political  system  without  a  core  of  self-defined 
sovereignty  in  the  government,  and  the  Judici 
ary  merely  reflected  the  training  of  the  bar. 
Judiciary,   Congress,  and  Executive,  all  parts 
of  one  mechanism,  could  be  restrained  only  by 
the  constant  control  of  the  people  of  the  States. 
There   can  be  little  doubt  that  this  was  the 
opinion   of  Patrick  Henry  in  1800,  as  it  was 
of   Randolph,   Madison,   and  Jefferson  ;  on  no 
other  theory,  as  they  believed,  could  there  be 
a  guaranty  for  their  liberties,  and  certain  it  is 
that  the    opposite   doctrine,  which   made   the 
central  machine  the  measure  of  its  own  powers, 
offered  no  guaranty  to  the  citizen  against  any 
stretch  of  authority  by  Congress,  President,  or 
Judiciary,  but  in  principle  was  merely  the  old 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  37 

despotic  sovereignty  of  Europe,  more   or  less 
disguised. 

Not,  therefore,  in  principle  did  Randolph  dif 
fer  from  Patrick  Henry  ;  it  was  in  applying 
the  principle  that  their  ideas  clashed  so  rudely ; 
and  this  application  always  embarrassed  the 
subject  of  states'  rights.  That  the  central 
government  was  a  mere  creature  of  the  people 
of  the  States,  and  that  the  people  of  those 
States  could  unmake  as  they  had  made  it,  was 
a  fact  unquestionable  and  unquestioned ;  but 
it  was  one  thing  to  claim  that  the  people  of 
Virginia  had  a  constitutional  right  to  interpose 
a  protest  against  usurpations  of  power  at  Wash 
ington,  and  it  was  another  thing  to  claim  that 
they  should  support  their  protest  by  force. 
Patrick  Henry  and  Mr.  Madison  shrank  from 
this  last  appeal  to  arms,  whicli  John  Randolph 
boldly  accepted ;  and,  in  his  defence,  it  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  a  right  which  has  nowhere  any 
ultimate  sanction  of  force  is,  in  law,  no  right  at 
all. 

With,  the  correctness  of  the  constitutional 
theories  which  have  perturbed  the  philosophy  of 
American  politics  it  is  needless  to  deal,  for  it 
is  not  their  correctness  which  is  now  in  ques 
tion  so  much  as  the  motives  and  acts  of  those 
who  believed  in  them.  There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  Randolph  honestly  believed  in  all 


38  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  theories  of  his  party  ;  was  deeply  persuaded 
of  the  corruption  and  wickedness  inherent  in 
every  government  which  defines  its  own  pow 
ers  ;  and  wished  to  make  himself  an  embod 
iment  of  purity  in  politics,  apart  from  every  in 
fluence  of  power  or  person.  For  a  generation 
like  our  own,  in  whose  ears  the  term  of  states' 
rights  has  become  hateful,  owing  to  its  perver 
sion  in  the  interests  of  negro  slavery,  and  in 
whose  eyes  the  comfortable  doctrines  of  unlim 
ited  national  sovereignty  shine  with  the  glory 
of  a  moral  principle  sanctified  by  the  blood  of 
innumerable  martyrs,  these  narrow  and  jealous 
prejudices  of  Randolph  and  his  friends  sound 
like  systematized  treason  ;  but  they  were  the 
honest  convictions  of  that  generation  which 
framed  and  adopted  the  Constitution,  and  the 
debates  of  the  state  conventions  in  1788,  of 
Massachusetts  as  well  as  of  New  York  and  Vir 
ginia,  show  that  a  great  majority  of  the  Amer 
ican  people  shared  the  same  fears  of  despotic 
government.  Time  will  show  whether  those 
fears  were  well  founded,  but  whether  they 
prove  real  or  visionary,  they  were  the  essence 
of  republican  politics,  and  Randolph,  whatever 
his  faults  may  have  been,  and  however  absurdly 
m  practice  his  system  might  work,  has  a  right 
to  such  credit  as  honest  convictions  and  love  of 
liberty  may  deserve. 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  39 

On  these  ideas,  advocated  in  their  most  ex 
treme  form,  he  contested  the  field  with  Patrick 
Henry,  and  carried  with  him  the  popular  sym 
pathies.  A  few  weeks  later,  Patrick  Henry 
was  dead,  and  young  "Jack  Randle,"  as  he  was 
called  in  Virginia^  had  secured  a  seat  in  Con 
gress. 

It  would  be  folly  to  question  the  abilities  of 
a  man  who,  at  twenty-six,  could  hold  his  own 
against  such  a  champion,  and  win  spurs  so 
gilded.  The  proof  of  his  genius  lies  in  his  au 
dacity,  in  the  boldness  with  which  he  com 
manded  success  and  controlled  it.  More  than 
any  other  southern  man  he  felt  the  intense 
self-confidence  of  the  Virginian,  as  contrasted 
with  his  northern  rivals,  a  moral  superiority 
which  became  disastrous  in  the  end  from  its 
very  strength  ;  for  the  resistless  force  of  north 
ern  democracy  lay  not  in  its  leaders  or  its  polit 
ical  organization,  but  in  its  social  and  industrial 
momentum,  and  this  was  a  force  against  which 
mere  individuality  strove  in  vain.  Randolph 
knew  Virginia,  and  knew  how  far  he  could 
domineer  over  her  by  exaggerating  her  own 
virtues  and  vices ;  but  he  did  not  so  well 
understand  that  the  world  could  not  be  cap 
tured  off-hand,  like  a  seat  in  Congress.  His 
intelligence  told  him  the  fact,  but  his  ungov 
ernable  temper  seldom  let  him  practice  on  it. 


40  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Meanwhile  the  crisis,  which  for  a  time  had 
threatened  a  catastrophe,  was  passing  away ; 
thanks,  not  to  the  forbearance  of  Randolph  or 
his  friends,  but  to  the  personal  interference 
of  that  old  bear  whom  Randolph  so  cordially 
hated,  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Fate,  however,  seemed  bent  upon  making  mis 
chief  between  these  two  men.  In  December, 
1799,  Randolph  took  his  seat,  cordially  wel 
comed  by  his  party  in  the  House,  and  within  a 
very  short  time  showed  his  intention  to  chal 
lenge  a  certain  leadership  in  debate.  He  was  in 
the  minority,  but  a  minority  led  by  Albert  Gal- 
latin  was  not  to  be  despised,  when  it  contained 
men  like  John  Nicholas  of  Virginia,  Samuel 
Smith  of  Maryland,  Edward  Livingston  of  New 
York,  Nathaniel  Macon  of  North  Carolina,  and 
Joseph  Nicholson  of  Maryland.  Randolph  was 
admitted,  as  of  right,  into  this  little  circle  of 
leaders,  and  plunged  instantly  into  debate. 
He  had  already  addressed  the  House  twice  : 
the  first  time  on  the  census  bill ;  the  second  on 
a  petition  from  free  negroes  in  favor  of  emanci 
pation,  an  act  of  license  which  led  him  to  hope 
tfc  that  the  conduct  of  the  House  would  be  so 
decided  as  to  deter  the  petitioners,  or  any  per 
sons  acting  for  them,  from  ever  presenting  one 
of  a  similar  nature  hereafter;"  and  on  Janu 
ary  9,  1800,  he  rose  again,  and  spoke  at  some 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  41 

length  on  a  motion  to  reduce  the  army.  The 
speech,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  was  not  happy : 
its  denunciation  of  standing  armies  was  not 
clever  enough  to  enliven  the  staleness  of  the 
idea,  and  its  praise  of  the  militia  system  lay 
open  to  the  same  objection  ;  but  its  temper  was 
fatal  had  the  speech  been  equal  to  Pitt's  best. 
Speaking  invariably  of  the  army  as  "  merce 
naries"  and  "  hirelings,"  "loungers  who  live 
upon  the  public,"  "  who  consume  the  fruits 
of  their  honest  industry  under  the  pretext  of 
protecting  them  from  a  foreign  yoke,"  heat  last 
added,  "  The  people  put  no  confidence  in  the 
protection  of  a  handful  of  ragamuffins."  This 
troubled  even  his  friends,  and  the  next  day 
be  rose  again  to  "  exchange,"  as  he  expressed 
it,  the  term  ragamuffin.  The  same  evening 
he  was  at  the  theatre  with  his  friends  Macon, 
Nicholson,  Christie  of  Maryland,  and  others, 
when  two  young  marine  officers  came  into  the 
box  behind  them,  and  made  remarks,  not  to 
Randolph,  but  at  him  :  "  Those  ragamuffins 
on  the  stage  are  black  Virginia  ragamuf 
fins ;"  "  They  march  well  for  ragamuffins;" 
"  Our  mercenaries  would  do  better  ;  "  until  at 
length  one  of  them  crowded  into  the  seat  by 
Randolph,  and  finally,  at  the  end  of  the  per 
formance,  as  he  was  leaving,  his  collar  was  vio 
lently  jerked  from  behind,  and  there  was  some 


42  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

jostling  on  the  stairs.  The  next  morning  Ran 
dolph  wrote  a  letter  to  the  President,  begin 
ning,  — 

"  Sir,  —  Known  to  you  only  as  holding,  in  common 
with  yourself,  the  honorable  station  of  servant  to  the 
same  sovereign  people,  and  disclaiming  all  preten- 
tions  to  make  to  you  any  application  which  in  the 
general  estimation  of  men  requires  the  preface  of 
apology,  I  shall,  without  the  circumlocution  of  com 
pliment,  proceed  to  state  the  cause  which  induces 
this  address." 

Then,  after  saying  in  the  same  astonishing  dic 
tion,  that  he  had  been  insulted  by  two  young 
marine  officers,  one  of  whom  was  named  Mc- 
Knight,  he  concluded,  — 

"  It  is  enough  for  me  to  state  that  the  independ 
ence  of  the  Legislature  has  been  attacked,  the  maj 
esty  of  the  people,  of  which  you  are  the  principal 
representative,  insulted,  and  your  authority  con 
temned.  In  their  name  I  demand  that  a  provision 
commensurate  with  the  evil  be  made,  and  which  will 
be  calculated  to  deter  others  from  any  future  attempt 
to  introduce  the  reign  of  terror  into  our  country." 

To  this  wonderful  piece  of  bombast  the  Pres 
ident  made  no  reply,  but  inclosed  it  in  a  very 
brief  message  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
as  relating  to  a  matter  of  privilege  "  which,  in 
my  opinion,  ought  to  be  inquired  into  in  the 
House  itself,  if  anywhere."  "  I  have  thought 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  43 

proper  to  submit  the  whole  letter  and  its  ten 
dencies  to  your  consideration,  without  any  other 
comments  on  its  matter  or  style."  The  mes 
sage  concluded  by  announcing  that  an  investi 
gation  had  been  ordered. 

This  reference  to  the  House  was  very  dis 
tasteful  to  Randolph,  and  when  a  committee 
of  investigation  was  appointed  he  hesitated 
to  appear  before  it.  He  was  still  more  annoyed 
when  the  committee  made  its  report,  which 
contained  a  sharp  censure  on  himself  for  "  de- 
^yiating  from  the  forms  of  decorum  customary 
in  official  communications  to  the  chief  mag 
istrate,"  and  for  demanding  redress  from  the 
Executive  in  a  matter  which  respected  the  priv 
ileges  of  the  House,  thereby  derogating  from 
the  rights  of  that  body.  In  vain  Randolph 
protested  that  he  had  not  written  "  Legisla 
ture,"  but  "  Legislator ;  "  in  vain  he  disavowed 
the  idea  that  a  breach  of  privilege  had  taken 
place,  and  declared  that  he  had  addressed  the 
President  only  in  his  military  capacity ;  the 
majority  had  him  in  a  position  where  the 
temptation  to  punish  was  irresistible,  and  he 
was  forced  to  endure  the  stripes. 

Even  Mr.  Gallatin's  skilful  defence  of  him 
was  a  little  equivocal.  "As  I  do  not  feel  my 
self  possessed  of  sufficient  courage,"  said  he, 
"  to  support  the  character  of  a  reformer  of  re- 


44  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ceived  customs,  I  shall  not,  when  they  are  only 
absurd,  but  harmless,  pretend  to  deviate  from 
them,  and  I  do  not  mean  to  change  my  manner 
in  order  to  assume  that  used  by  the  gentleman  ; 
but  he  certainly  has  a  right  to  do  it  if  he  thinks 
proper."  One  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  ex 
perience  of  being  insulted  in  public,  and  cen 
sured  for  it  by  Congress,  though  somewhat 
sharp,  did  Randolph  good.  He  was  more  cau 
tious  for  a  long  time  afterwards  ;  talked  less 
about  ragamuffins  and  hirelings ;  went  less  out 
of  his  way  to  challenge  attention ;  and  was 
more  amenable  to  good  advice.  Indeed,  it 
might  be  supposed  from  the  index  to  the  re 
ported  debates  that  he  did  not  again  open  his 
mouth  before  the  adjournment;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  has  himself  said  that  the  best 
speech  he  ever  made  was  on  the  subject  of  the 
Connecticut  Reserve  at  this  session,  and  the  rec 
ord  shows  that  on  April  4,  1800,  he  did  speak 
on  this  subject,  although  his  remarks  were  not 
reported.  In  fact,  he  took  an  active  share  in 
the  public  business. 

His  spirits  seem  to  have  been  much  depressed. 
"  I  too  am  wretched,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend 
Bryan,  in  the  course  of  the  winter.  He  says 
that  he  meditated  resigning  his  seat  and  going 
fco  Europe.  He  seems  to  have  been  suffering 
under  a  complication  of  trials,  the  mystery  of 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  45 

which  his  biographers  had  best  not  attempt  to 
penetrate,  for  his  wails  of  despair,  sometimes 
genuine,  but  oftener  the  effect  of  an  uncon 
trolled  temperament,  tell  nothing  more  than 
thai  he  was  morbid  and  nervous.  "  My  char 
acter,  like  many  other  sublunary  things,  hath 
lately  undergone  an  almost  total  revolution." 
No  such  change  is  apparent,  but  possibly  he 
was  really  suffering  under  some  mental  dis 
tress.  There  is  talk  even  of  a  love  affair,  but 
it  is  very  certain  that  no  affair  of  the  heart  had 
at  any  time  a  serious  influence  over  his  life. 

Nothing,  however,  is  more  remarkable  than 
the  solemnity  with  which  he  regarded  himself. 
It  is  curious  that  a  man  so  quick  in  seeing  the 
weakness  of  others,  and  in  later  life  so  admira- 
bly  terse  in  diction  and  ideas,  should  have  been 
able  to  see  nothing  preposterous  in  his  own  mag 
niloquence,  or  could  have  gravely  written  a  let 
ter  such  as  that  to  the  President ;  but  he  was 
writing  in  a  similar  vein  to  his  only  very  inti 
mate  friend,  Bryan,  telling  him  that  "  the  eagle 
eye  of  friendship  finds  no  difficulty  in  piercing 
the  veil  which  shrouds  you  ;  "  that  "  you  seek 
in  vain  to  fly  from  misery ;  it  will  accompany 
you ;  it  will  rankle  in  that  heart  in  whose  cruel 
wounds  it  rejoices  to  dwell."  This  was  not  the 
tone  of  his  friend,  for  Bryan  had  used  language 
which,  if  profane,  was  at  least  natural,  and  had 


46  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

only  said  that  he  "  was  in  a  hell  of  a  taking  for 
two  or  three  days,"  on  account  of  a  love  affair, 
and  was  going  to  Europe  in  consequence.  Bom 
bast,  however,  was  a  fault  of  the  young  Virgin 
ian  school.  John  Thompson,  one  of  Randolph's 
intimates,  the  author  of  Gracchus,  Cassius,  Cur- 
tius,  and  Heaven  knows  how  many  more  clas 
sical  effusions,  wrote  in  the  same  stilted  and 
pseudo-Ciceronian  sentences.  This  young  man 
died  in  1799,  only  twenty-three  years  old ;  his 
brother  William  was  another  of  Randolph's 
friends,  and  not  a  very  safe  one,  for  his  habits 
were  bad  even  at  twenty,  and  grew  worse  as  he 
went  on.  All  these  young  men  seem  to  have 
lived  on  mock  heroics.  John  Thompson,  writ 
ing  to  his  brother  in  1799,  mentions  that  Ran 
dolph  is  running  for  Congress  :  "  He  is  a  brill 
iant  and  noble  young  man.  He  will  be  an  ob 
ject  of  admiration  and  terror  to  the  enemies  of 
liberty."  William  Thompson  was,  if  possible, 
still  more  in  the  clouds  than  his  brother  John ; 
his  nonsense  was  something  never  imagined  out 
of  a  stage  drama  of  Kotzebue.  "  Often  do  I  ex 
claim,  Would  that  you  and  I  were  cast  on  some 
desert  island,  there  to  live  out  the  remainder  of 
our  days  unpolluted  by  the  communication  with 
man  !  "  In  politics,  in  love,  in  friendship,  all 
was  equally  classic  ;  every  boyish  scrape  was  a 
Greek  tragedy,  and  every  stump  speech  a  terror 


VIRGINIAN  POLITICS.  47 

fco  the  enemies  of  liberty.  To  treat  such  effu 
sions  in  boys  of  twenty  as  serious  is  out  of  the 
question,  even  though  their  ringleader  was  a 
member  of  Congress  ;  but  they  are  interesting, 
because  they  show  how  solemnly  these  young 
reformers  of  1800  believed  in  themselves  and 
in  their  reforms.  The  world's  great  age  had 
for  them  begun  anew,  and  the  golden  years  re 
turned.  They  were  real  Gracchi,  Curtii,  Cassii. 
His  little  collision  with  the  President,  there 
fore,  was  calculated  to  do  Randolph  good.  He 
had  come  to  Washington,  a  devoted  admirer  of 
the  first  Pitt,  hoping,  perhaps,  to  imitate  that 
terrible  cornet  of  horse,  and,  unless  likenesses 
are  very  deceptive,  he  studied,  too,  the  tone  and 
temper  of  the  younger  Pitt,  the  great  orator  of 
the  day,  who  had  been  prime  minister  at  twenty- 
five,  and  was  still  ruling  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  as  Randolph  aspired  to  rule  the  House  of 
Representatives.  The  sharp  check  received  at 
the  outset  was  a  corrective  to  these  ideas;  it 
made  him  no  less  ambitious  to  command,  but  it 
taught  him  to  curb  his  temper,  to  bide  his  time, 
and  not  expose  himself  to  ridicule. 


CHAPTER  III. 
IN  HARNESS. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1800  the  presidential  elec 
tion  took  place,  which  overthrew  the  federalist 
sway,  and  brought  the  republican  party  into 
power.  As  every  reader  knows,  Jefferson  and 
Burr  received  an  equal  number  of  electoral 
votes,  a  result  which,  under  the  Constitution  as 
it  then  stood,  threw  the  choice  into  the  House 
of  Representatives,  where  the  vote  must  be 
taken  by  States.  This  business  absorbed  atten 
tion  and  left  little  opening  for  members  to  put 
themselves  forward  in  debate.  Randolph,  like 
the  rest,  could  only  watch  eagerly  and  write 
letters,  two  of  which,  addressed  to  Joseph  H. 
Nicholson,  then  for  a  few  days  absent  from  his 
seat,  are  curious  as  showing  his  state  of  mind 
towards  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  idol  of  his  party. 
The  first  letter  is  dated  December  17,  1800  :  - 

"There  is  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  that  the  vote  will 
be  equal  between  them  [Jefferson  and  Burr],  and  if 
we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  bullied  by  the  aristocrats 
they  will  defeat  the  election.  The  only  mode  for  us 
to  adopt  is  to  offer  them  choice  of  the  men,  and  see 


IN  HARNESS.  49 

on  which  horn  of  the  dilemma  they  will  choose  to 
hang  themselves.  ...  I  need  not  say  how  much  / 
would  prefer  Jefferson  to  Burr ;  but  I  am  not  like 
some  of  our  party,  who  are  as  much  devoted  to  him 
as  the  feds  were  to  General  Washington.  I  am  not 
a  monarchist  in  any  sense." 

These  ideas  seem  to  have  startled  Nicholson, 
who  replied  with  a  remonstrance,  while  in  the 
mean  time  public  opinion  in  Washington  quickly 
decided  that  Jefferson  alone  could  be  accepted 
as  the  republican  candidate.  On  January  1, 
1801,  a  fortnight  later,  Randolph  wrote  with  a 
considerable  change  of  tone :  — 

"I  have  very  obscurely  expressed,  or  you  have 
misconceived,  my  meaning,  if  you  infer  from  either 
of  my  letters  that  the  election,  whether  of  J.  or  B., 
to  the  presidency  is  in  my  estimation  a  matter  of  in 
difference." 

Then,  after  explaining  that  the  will  of  the 
people  would  in  any  case  decide  his  conduct 
and  preferences,  he  continued  :  — 

"  'T  is  true  that  I  have  observed,  with  a  disgust 
which  I  have  been  at  no  pains  to  conceal,  a  spirit  of 
personal  attachment  evinced  by  some  of  the  support 
ers  of  Mr.  J.,  whose  republicanism  has  not  been  the 
most  unequivocal.  There  are  men  who  do  right  from 
wrong  motives,  if  indeed  it  can  be  morally  right  to 
act  with  evil  views.  There  are  those  men  who  sup 
port  republicans  from  monarchical  principles ;  and  if 


50  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  head  of  that  very  great  and  truly  good  man  can 
be  turned  by  adulatory  nonsense,  they  will  endeavor 
to  persuade  him  that  our  salvation  depends  on  an  in 
dividual.  This  is  the  essence  of  monarchy,  and  with 
this  doctrine  I  have  been,  am,  and  ever  will  be,  at 
issue." 

This  was  sound  doctrine  for  a  man  of  the 
people,  who  held  no  office  and  had  no  object 
in  politics  beyond  the  public  good ;  but  in  a 
man  himself  aspiring  to  rival  the  demi-god, 
and  who  instinctively  disliked  what  other  men 
adored,  it  was  open  to  misinterpretation.  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  quick  —  no  man  was  quicker  — 
.to  feel  a  breath  of  coldness  in  his  supporters. 
What  would  he  have  thought  had  Nicholson 
shown  him  these  letters  ? 

For  the  present  Randolph's  independence 
roused  no  ill-feeling  or  suspicion.  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  got  his  election  by  the  withdrawal  of  feder 
alist  votes.  The  session  passed  without  bring 
ing  to  Randolph  any  special  opportunity  for 
distinguishing  himself ;  and  on  March  4,  1801, 
the  new  administration  was  organized.  In 
every  way  it  was  favorable  to  Randolph's  am 
bition.  The  President  was  a  Virginian  and  a 
blood  relation,  although  perhaps  not  on  that 
account  dearer  to  Randolph's  affections;  the 
Secretary  of  State  was  a  Virginian  ;  and,  still 
better,  the  appointment  of  Gallatin  as  Secre- 


IN  HARNESS.  51 

tary  of  the  Treasury  removed  from  the  House 
its  oldest  and  ablest  leader. 

The  summer  of  1801  was  passed  quietly  at 
Bizarre,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  was  getting  his 
new  administration  into  order,  and  preparing  a 
series  of  measures  intended  to  purify  the  Con 
stitution  and  restore  the  States  to  their  proper 
functions.  On  July  18,  1801,  Randolph  writes 
thus  to  his  friend  Nicholson  :  — 

"  If  you  are  not  surfeited  with  politics,  I  am.  I 
shall  therefore  say  but  a  word  on  that  subject,  to 
tell  you  that  in  this  quarter  we  think  that  the  great 
work  is  only  begun,  and  that  without  a  substantial 
reform  we  shall  have  little  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves  on  the  mere  change  of  men.  Independent 
of  its  precariousness,  we  disdain  to  hold  our  privi 
leges  by  so  base  a  tenure.  We  challenge  them  as  of 
right,  and  will  not  have  them  depend  on  the  com 
plexion  of  an  individual.  The  objects  of  this  reform 
will  at  once  suggest  themselves  to  you." 

In  other  words,  if  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  prove 
reformer  enough,  Randolph  would  do  his  own 
reforming,  and  wished  for  Nicholson's  help. 
Here  already  is  the  germ  of  his  future  develop 
ment  and  the  clue  to  his  erratic  career.  The 
writer  goes  on  :  — 

"  It  is  no  exaggeration  when  I  tell  you  that  there 
is  more  of  politics  in  the  preceding  page  than  I  have 
thought,  spoken,  or  written  since  I  saw  you.  DUP- 


52  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ing  this  period  I  have  been<  closely  engaged  in  my 
own  affairs,  which  afford  very  little  of  satisfaction  or 
amusement." 

He  had  passed  the  last  session  in  the  same 
house  with  the  Nicholsons,  and  wished  to  do  so 
again :  — 

"  Do  exert  yourself  and  procure  lodgings  for  us 
both  in  time.  I  shall  want  stabling  for  two  horses, 
and  a  carriage  house.  .  .  .  By  Christmas  I  expect 
the  leeches  of  Washington,  having  disgorged  much  of 
their  last  winter's  prey,  will  be  pretty  sharp  set.  On 
making  up  my  accounts  I  find  that,  independent  of 
the  unlucky  adventure  of  my  pocket-book,  I  have 
had  the  honor  of  expending  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States  nearly  $1,000,  exclusive  of  their  com 
pensation.  Such  another  blood-letting,  in  addition  to 
the  expensive  tour  which  I  undertake  to-morrow  [to 
the  warm  springs]  and  the  fall  of  produce,  will  be 
too  much  for  my  feeble  frame  to  endure.  I  therefore 
wish  to  lay  aside  the  character  of  John  Bull  for  a 
time  at  least ;  and,  although  I  will  not  live  in  a  sty, 
wish  you  to  have  some  eye  to  economy  in  the  ar 
rangement  above  mentioned.  'T  is  the  order  of  the 
day,  you  know." 

And  finally  comes  a  significant  little  post 
script  :  "  What  think  you  of  the  New  Jersey  su 
pervisor  ? "  The  New  Jersey  supervisor  was 
James  Linn,  a  member  of  the  last  Congress, 
whose  doubtful  vote  decided  the  State  of  New 


IN  HARNESS.  53 

Jersey  for  Jefferson,  and  who  now  received  his 
reward  in  the  profitable  office  of  supervisor. 
Randolph  seems  to  have  questioned  the  perfect 
disinterestedness  of  the  transaction  on  either 
side. 

This  glimpse  of  his  private  life  shows  the 
spirit  in  which  he  took  up  his  new  responsi 
bilities.  He  prided  himself  on  independence. 
These  old  republicans  of  the  south,  Giles, 
Macon,  Nicholson,  Randolph,  and  their  friends, 
always  asserted  their  right  to  judge  party 
measures  by  their  private  standard,  and  to  vote 
as  they  pleased,  nor  was  this  right  a  mere 
theory,  for  they  exercised  it  freely,  and  some 
times  fatally  to  their  party  interests.  Whether 
they  were  wise  or  foolish  statesmen,  the  differ 
ence  between  them  and  others  was  simply  in 
this  pride,  or,  as  some  may  call  it,  self-re 
spect,  which  made  them  despise  with  caustic 
contempt  politicians  who  obeyed  party  orders, 
and  surrendered  their  consciences  to  a  caucus. 
Even  in  1801  Randolph  would  probably  have 
horsewhipped  any  man  who  dared  tell  him  he 
must  obey  his  party,  but  the  whip  itself  would 
not  have  expressed  half  the  bitter  contempt 
his  heart  felt  for  so  mean  a  wretch.  To  be 
jealous  of  executive  influence  and  patronage 
was  the  duty  of  a  true  republican,  and  to  wear 
the  livery  of  a  superior  was  his  abhorrence. 


54  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Randolph,  from  the  first,  was  jealous  of  Mr. 
Jefferson.  Whether  he  was  right  or  wrong 
is  the  riddle  of  his  life. 

When  Congress  met,  December  7,  1801,  the 
House  chose  Nathaniel  Macon  for  its  Speaker. 
Honest,  simple-minded,  ignorant  as  a  North 
Carolinian  planter  in  those  days  was  expected 
to  be,  and  pure  as  any  Cincinnatus  ever  bred 
by  Rome,  Macon  was  dazzled  and  bewitched 
by  the  charm  of  Randolph's  manner,  mind,  and 
ambition.  Few  southern  men  could  ever  resist 
Randolph's  caresses  when  he  chose  to  caress, 
and  the  men  who  followed  him  most  faithfully 
and  believed  in  him  to  the  last  were  the 
most  high-minded  and  unselfish  of  southern 
ers.  Macon  was  already  on  his  knees  to  him 
as  before  an  Apollo,  and  in  spite  of  innumer 
able  rude  shocks  the  honest  North  Carolinian 
never  quite  freed  himself  from  the  strange 
fascination  of  this  young  Virginian  Brutus, 
with  eyes  that  pierced  and  voice  that  rang 
like  the  vibration  of  glass,  and  with  the  pride 
of  twenty  kings  to  back  his  more  than  Ro 
man  virtue.  This  conception  of  Randolph's 
character  may  have  shown  want  of  experience, 
but  perhaps  Macon  had,  among  his  simple  theo 
ries,  no  stronger  conviction  than  that  Randolph 
was,  what  he  himself  was  not,  a  true  man  of 
the  world.  At  all  events,  the  Speaker  instantly 


IN  HARNESS.  55 

made  his  youthful  idol  chairman  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  Committee  and  leader  of  the  House. 
Thus,  from  the  start,  Randolph  was  put  in  the 
direct  line  of  promotion  to  the  cabinet  and  the 
presidency.  During  the  whole  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  first  administration,  from  1801  to  1805, 
he  was  on  trial,  like  a  colt  in  training.  Long 
afterwards  Mr.  Gallatin,  in  one  .of  his  private 
letters,  ran  over  the  list  of  candidates  for  hon 
ors,  favored  by  the  triumvirate  of  Jefferson, 
Madison,  and  himself :  "  During  the  twelve 
years  I  was  at  the  Treasury  I  was  anxiously 
looking  for  some  man  that  could  fill  my  place 
there  and  in  the  general  direction  of  the  na 
tional  concerns  ;  for  one,  indeed,  that  could  re 
place  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and  myself. 
Breckenridge  of  Kentucky  only  appeared  and 
died  ;  the  eccentricities  and  temper  of  J.  Ran 
dolph  soon  destroyed  his  influence;"  so  that 
Mr.  William  H.  Crawford  of  Georgia  became 
at  last  the  residuum  of  six  great  reputations. 

Randolph  began,  like  Breckenridge,  with 
marked  superiority  of  will,  as  well  as  of  tal 
ents,  and  ruled  over  the  House  with  a  hand 
BO  heavy  that  William  Pitt  might  have  envied 
him.  Even  Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  White  House, 
wielding  an  influence  little  short  of  despotic, 
did  not  venture  to  put  on,  like  Randolph,  the 
manners  of  a  despot.  Outside  the  House,  how- 


56  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ever,  his  authority  did  not  extend.  In  the  Cab 
inet  and  in  the  Senate  other  men  overshadowed 
him,  and  some  dramatic  climax  could  hardly 
fail  to  spring  from  this  conflict  of  forces.  The 
story  of  Randolph's  career  as  a  party  leader 
marks  an  epoch  ;  round  it  cluster  more  serious 
difficulties,  doubts,  problems,  paradoxes,  more 
disputes  as  to  fact  and  theory,  more  contradic 
tions  in  the  estimate  to  be  put  on  men  called 
great,  than  are  to  be  found  in  any  other  part 
of  our  history.  Elsewhere  it  is  not  hard  for 
the  student  to  find  a  clue  to  right  and  wrong  ; 
to  take  sides,  and  mete  out  some  measure  of 
justice  with  some  degree  of  confidence  ;  but  in 
regard  to  John  Randolph's  extraordinary  career 
from  1800  to  1806  it  is  more  than  likely  that 
no  two  historians  will  ever  agree. 

From  the  moment  of  his  first  appearance 
in  Congress,  Randolph  claimed  and  received 
recognition  as  a  representative  of  the  extreme 
school  of  Virginian  republicans,  whose  polit 
ical  creed  was  expressed  by  the  Resolutions  of 
1798.  Dread  of  the  Executive,  of  corruption 
and  patronage,  of  usurpations  by  the  central 
government ;  dread  of  the  Judiciary  as  an  in 
variable  servant  to  despotism;  dread  of  na 
tional  sovereignty  altogether,  were  the  dogmas 
of  this  creed.  All  these  men  foresaw  what  the 
people  of  America  would  be  obliged  to  meet  • 


IN  HARNESS.  57 

they  were  firmly  convinced  that  the  central 
government,  intended  to  be  the  people's  creat 
ure  and  servant,  would  one  day  make  itself 
the  people's  master,  and,  interpreting  its  own 
powers  without  asking  permission,  would  be 
come  extravagant,  corrupt,  despotic.  Accord 
ingly  they  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  correct 
ing  past  mistakes,  and  of  establishing  a  new 
line  of  precedents  to  fix  the  character  of  future 
politics.  Every  branch  of  the  government  ex 
cept  the  Judiciary  was  in  their  hands.  Mr. 
Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and  Mr.  Gallatin  were 
their  greatest  leaders ;  Macon,  the  Speaker,  was 
heart  and  soul  with  them;  Joseph  H.  Nicholson 
and  Randolph  were  Macon's  closest  friends,  and 
by  these  three  men  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  was  ruled.  If  any  government  could  be 
saved,  this  was  it. 

No  one  can  deny  the  ability  with  which  Mr. 
Jefferson's  first  administration  began  its  career, 
or  the  brilliant  success  which  it  won.  During 
twelve  years  of  opposition  the  party  had  ham 
mered  out  a  scheme  of  government,  forging  it, 
so  to  speak,  on  the  anvil  of  federalism,  so  as  to 
be  federalism  precisely  reversed.  The  consti 
tution  of  the  republican  party  was  the  federal 
ists'  constitution  read  backwards,  like  a  medi 
aeval  invocation  of  the  devil ;  and  this  was  in 
many  respects  and  for  ordinary  times,  the  best 


58  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

and  safest  way  of  reading  it,  although  followed 
for  only  a  few  years  by  its  inventors,  and  then 
going  out  of  fashion,  never  again  to  be  heard  of 
except  as  mere  party  shibboleth,  not  seriously 
intended,  even  by  its  loudest  champions,  but 
strong  for  them  to  conjure  with  among  honest 
and  earnest  citizens.  In  1801,  however,  the 
party  was  itself  in  earnest.  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  his  Virginian  followers  thoroughly  believed 
themselves  to  have  founded  a  new  system  of 
polity.  Never  did  any  party  or  any  adminis 
tration  in  our  country  begin  a  career  of  power 
with  such  entire  confidence  that  a  new  era  of 
civilization  and  liberty  had  dawned  on  earth. 
If  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  rank  among  his  follow 
ers  as  one  of  the  greatest  lawgivers  recorded 
in  history,  a  resplendent  figure  seated  by  the 
side  of  Moses  and  Solon,  of  Justinian  and 
Charlemagne,  the  tone  of  the  time  much  be 
lies  them.  In  his  mind,  what  had  gone  before 
was  monarchism;  what  came  after  was  alone 
true  republicanism.  However  absurdly  this 
doctrine  may  have  sounded  to  northern  ears, 
and  to  men  who  knew  the  relative  character  of 
New  England  and  Virginia,  the  still  greater 
absurdities  of  leading  federalists  lent  some  color 
of  truth  to  it ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Mr.  Jefferson,  by  his  very  freedom  from  theo 
logical  prejudices  and  from  Calvinistic  doc- 


IN  HARNESS.  59 

trines,  was  a  sounder  democrat  than  any  ortho 
dox  New  Englander  could  ever  hope  to  be. 
Thus  it  was  that  he  took  into  his  hand  the 
federalists'  constitution,  and  set  himself  to  the 
task  of  stripping  away  its  monarchical  excres 
cences,  and  restoring  its  true  republican  out 
lines  ;  but  its  one  serious  excrescence,  the  only 
one  which  was  essentially  and  dangerously  mon 
archical,  he  could  not,  or  would  not,  touch ;  it 
was  his  own  office,  —  the  executive  power. 

When  Randolph    spoke   of   a    "  substantial 
reform,"  he  meant  that  he  wanted  something 
radical,  something  more  than  a  mere  change  of 
office-holders.    The  federalists  had  built  up  the 
nation  at  the  expense  of  the  States ;  their  work 
must  be  undone.     When  he  returned  to  Wash 
ington  he  found  what  it  was  that  the  President 
and  the  party  proposed  to  do  by  way  of  restor 
ing  purity  to  the  system.     In  the  executive  de 
partment,  forms  were  to  be  renounced ;  patron 
age  cut  down  ;  influence  diminished  ;  the  army 
and  navy  reduced  to  a  police  force  ;   internal 
taxes  abandoned;   the  debt  paid,  and  its  cen 
tralizing  influence  removed  from  the  body  pol 
itic  ;  nay,  even  the  mint  abolished  as  a  useless 
expense,  and  foreign  coins  to  be  used  in  pref 
erence  to  those  of  the  nation,  since  even  a  cop 
per  cent,  the  only  national  coin  then  in  com 
mon  use,  was  a  daily  and  irritating  assertion 


60  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

of  national  over  state  sovereignty.  In  the  leg 
islative  department  there  could  be  little  change 
except  in  sentiment  and  in  their  earnest  wish 
to  heal  the  wounds  that  the  Constitution  had 
suffered  ;  but  in  the  Judiciary !  —  there  was 
the  rub ! 

The  test  of  the  party  policy  lay  here.  All 
these  Jeffersonian  reforms,  payment  of  debt, 
reduction  of  patronage,  abandonment  of  eti 
quette,  preference  of  Spanish  dollars,  touched 
only  the  surface  of  things.  The  executive 
power  was  still  there,  though  it  might  not  be  so 
visible ;  the  legislative  power  was  also  there, 
dangerous  as  ever  even  by  its  very  acts  of  re 
form;  while,  to  exorcise  these  demons  effect 
ually,  it  was  necessary  to  alter  the  Constitution 
itself,  which  neither  Mr.  Jefferson  nor  his  party 
dared  to  do.  There  was  something  not  merely 
ridiculous,  but  contemptible,  in  abolishing  the 
President's  receptions  and  stopping  the  coinage 
of  cents,  while  that  terrible  clause  was  left  in 
the  Constitution  which  enabled  Congress  to 
make  all  laws  it  might  choose  to  think  "  neces 
sary  and  proper  "  to  carry  out  its  own  powers 
and  provide  for  the  general  welfare ;  or  while 
the  Judiciary  stood  ready  at  any  moment  to  in 
terpret  that  clause  as  it  pleased. 

Certainly  Randolph's  own  wishes  would  have 
favored  a  thorough  revision  of  the  Constitution 


IN  HARNESS.  61 

and  the  laws ;  he  knew  where  the  radical  dan 
ger  lay,  and  would  have  supported  with  his 
usual  energy  any  radical  measures  of  reform,  but 
it  was  not  upon  him  that  responsibility  rested. 
The  President  and  the  Cabinet  shrank  from 
strong  measures,  and  the  northern  democrats 
were  not  to  be  relied  upon  for  their  support. 
Moreover,  the  Senate  was  still  narrowly  di 
vided,  and  the  federalists  were  not  only  strong 
in  numbers,  but  in  ability.  Perhaps,  however, 
the  real  reason  for  following  a  moderate  course 
lay  deeper  than  any  mere  question  of  majorities. 
The  republican  party  in  1801  would  not  touch 
the  true  sources  of  political  danger,  the  execu 
tive  and  legislative  powers,  because  they  them 
selves  now  controlled  these  powers,  and  they 
honestly  thought  that  so  long  as  this  was  the 
case,  states'  rights  and  private  liberties  were 
safe.  The  Judiciary,  however,  was  not  within 
their  control,  but  was  wholly  federalist,  and 
likely  for  many  years  to  remain  so,  —  a  fortress 
of  centralization,  a  standing  threat  to  states' 
rights.  The  late  administration  had  in  its  last 
moments,  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
taken  a  series  of  measures  meant  not  only  to 
rivet  its  own  hold  over  the  Judiciary,  but  to 
widen  and  strengthen  the  influence  of  national 
at  the  expense  of  state  courts,  by  reconstruct 
ing  the  judiciary  system,  reducing  to  five  the 


62  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

number  of  judges  on  the  supreme  bench,  and 
increasing  the  district  courts  to  twenty-three, 
thus  creating  as  many  new  judges.  This  done, 
the  late  President  filled  up  these  offices  with 
federalists;  the  Senate  confirmed  his  appoint 
ments  ;  and,  to  crown  all,  the  President  ap 
pointed  and  the  Senate  confirmed  the  ablest 
of  the  Virginian  federalists,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  John  Marshall,  as  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court. 

The  new  President  was  furious  at  this  ma 
noeuvre,  and  to  the  last  day  of  his  life  never 
spoke  of  what  he  called  the  "  midnight  ap 
pointments  "  without  an  unusual  display  of  tem 
per,  although  it  is  not  clear  that  a  midnight 
appointment  is  worse  than  a  midday  appoint 
ment,  or  that  the  federalists  were  bound  to 
please  a  President  who  came  into  office  solely 
to  undo  their  work.  The  real  cause  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson's  anger,  and  its  excuse,  lay  beneath  the 
matter  of  patronage,  in  the  fact  that  the  Judi 
ciary  thus  established  was  a  serious,  if  not  fatal 
obstacle  to  his  own  success  ;  for  until  the  fount 
ain  of  justice  should  be  purified  the  stream  of 
constitutional  law  could  not  run  pure,  the  nec 
essary  legal  precedents  could  not  be  established, 
the  States  could  not  be  safe  from  encroach 
ments  or  the  President  himself  from  constant 
insult. 


IN  HARNESS.  63 

Thus  it  was  that  the  most  serious  question 
for  the  new  President  and  his  party  regarded 
the  Judiciary,  and  this  question  of  the  Judi 
ciary  was  that  which   Congress  undertook   to 
settle.     Randolph,  and  men  of  his  reckless  nat 
ure,  seeing  clearly  that  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
and  the  Supreme  Court,  backed  by  the  array  of 
circuit  and  district  judges,  could  always  over 
turn  republican  principles  and  strict  construc 
tion  faster  than   Congress  and   the  President 
could  set  them  up,  saw  with  the  same  clear 
ness  that  an  entire  reform  of  the  Judiciary  and 
its  adhesion  to  the  popular  will  were  necessary, 
since  otherwise  the  gross  absurdity  would  fol 
low  that  four  fifths  of  the  people  and  of  the 
States,  both  Houses  of  Congress,  the  Executive, 
and  the  state  Judiciaries  might  go  on  forever 
declaring  and  maintaining  that  the  central  gov 
ernment  had  not  the  right  to  interpret  its  own 
powers,  while  John  Marshall  and  three  or  four 
old  federalists  on  the  supreme  bench  proved  the 
contrary  by  interpreting  those  powers  as  they 
liked,  and  by  making  their  interpretation  law. 
Randolph  and  his  friends,  therefore,  wished  to  re 
construct  the  Judiciary  throughout,  and  to  se 
cure  an  ascendency  over  the  courts  of  law,  but 
the  northern  democrats  dreaded  nothing  more 
than  the  charge  of  revolutionary  and  violent  at 
tacks  on  the  Constitution ;  the  President  and 


64  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Cabinet  gave  no  encouragement  to  hasty  and  in 
temperate  measures ;  all  the  wise  heads  of  the 
party  advised  that  Chief  Justice  Marshall  and 
the  Supreme  Court  should  be  left  to  the  influ 
ence  of  time ;  and  that  Congress  should  be  con 
tent  with  abolishing  the  new  circuit  system  of 
the  federalists,  and  with  getting  rid  of  the  new 
judges. 

On  January  4,  1802,  Randolph  moved  for 
an  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  the  judiciary 
establishment,  and  the  motion  was  referred  to 
a  committee  of  which  his  friend  Nicholson  was 
chairman.  Pending  their  report,  a  bill  came 
down  from  the  Senate  by  which  the  Judiciary 
Act  of  1800  was  repealed.  The  debate  which 
now  ensued  in  the  House  was  long  and  discur 
sive.  The  federalists  naturally  declared  that 
this  repealing  act  put  an  end  forever  to  the 
independence  of  the  Judiciary,  and  that  it  was 
intended  to  do  so ;  they  declaimed  against  its 
constitutionality ;  ransacked  history  and  law 
to  prove  their  positions,  and  ended  by  declar 
ing,  as  they  had  declared  with  the  utmost  sim 
plicity  of  faith  on  every  possible  occasion  for 
ten  years  past  :  "  We  are  standing  on  the 
brink  of  that  revolutionary  torrent  which  del 
uged  in  blood  one  of  the  fairest  countries  in 
Europe."  Yet  the  Repealing  Act  was  in  fact 
not  revolution,  but  concession  ;  overthrowing  a 


IN  HARNESS.  65 

mere  outer  line  of  defence,  it  left  the  citadel 
intact,  and  gave  a  tacit  pledge  that  the  federal 
ist  supreme  bench  should  not  be  disturbed,  at 
least  for  the  present.  When  it  is  considered 
that  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  the  course  of  his 
long  judicial  career,  rooted  out  Mr.  Jefferson's 
system  of  polity  more  effectually  than  all  the 
Presidents  and  all  the  Congresses  that  ever 
existed,  and  that  the  Supreme  Court  not  only 
made  war  on  states'  rights,  but  supported  with 
surprising  unanimity  every  political  and  con 
stitutional  innovation  on  the  part  of  Congress 
and  the  Executive,  it  can  only  be  a  matter  of 
wonder  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  party,  knowing 
well  the  danger,  and  aware  that  their  lives  and 
fortunes  depended,  or  might  probably  depend, 
on  their  action  at  this  point,  should  have  let 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  slip  through  their  fin 
gers.  To  remodel  the  whole  bench  might  have 
been  revolution,  but  not  to  remodel  it  was  to 
insure  the  failure  of  their  aim. 

The  republicans  were  over-confident  in  their 
own  strength  and  in  the  permanence  of  their 
principles  ;  they  had  in  fact  hoodwinked  them 
selves,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  and  John  Randolph 
were  responsible  for  their  trouble.  The  party 
had  really  fought  against  the  danger  of  an  over 
grown  governmental  machine  ;  but  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  and  John  Randolph  had  told  them  they 


66  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

were  fighting  against  monarchy.  Setting  up, 
to  excite  themselves,  a  scarecrow  with  a  crown 
upon  its  head,  they  called  it  King  John  I.,  and 
then,  with  shouts  of  delight,  told  it  to  go  back 
to  Brain  tree.  The  scarecrow  vanished  at  their 
word,  and  they  thought 'their  battle  won.  Ran 
dolph  saw  from  time  to  time  that,  so  far  as 
there  had  been  any  monarchy  in  question,  the 
only  difference  was  that  Thomas  Jefferson  in 
stead  of  John  Adams  wore  the  shadow  of  a 
crown,  but  even  Randolph  had  not  the  perspi 
cacity  or  the  courage  to  face  the  whole  truth, 
and  to  strike  at  the  very  tangible  power  which 
Stood  behind  this  imaginary  throne.  He,  like 
all  the  rest,  was  willing  to  be  silent  now  that 
his  people  were  masters ;  he  turned  away  from 
the  self -defined,  sovereign  authority  which  was 
to  grind  his  "country,"  as  he  called  Virginia, 
into  the  dust ;  he  had,  it  may  be,  fixed  his  eyes 
somewhat  too  keenly  on  that  phantom  crown, 
and  in  imagination  was  wearing  it  himself,  — 
King  John  II. 

The  debate  on  the  Judiciary  in  the  session  of 
1801-2  lacks  paramount  interest  because  the 
states'-rights  republicans,  being  now  in  power, 
were  afraid  of  laying  weight  on  their  own  princi 
ple,  although  there  was  then  no  taint  of  slavery 
or  rebellion  about  it,  and  although  it  was  a 
principle  of  which  any  man,  who  honestly  be- 


'IN  HARNESS.  67 

lieved  in  it,  must  be  proud.  On  the  day  when 
Randolph  moved  his  inquiry,  Mr.  Bayard  of 
Delaware,  in  debating  the  new  apportionment 
bill,  had  proposed  to  make  30,000  instead  of 
33,000  the  ratio  of  representation,  and  had 
given  as  his  reason  the  belief  that  an  addition 
of  ten  members  to  the  House  would  do  more 
than  an  army  of  10,000  men  to  increase  its 
energy,  and  to  give  power  by  giving  popularity 
to  the  government.  Randolph  sprang  to  his 
feet  as  Bayard  sat  down,  and  burst  into  a  strong 
states '-rights  speech ;  yet  even  then,  speaking 
on  the  spur  of  his  feelings,  he  was  afraid  to 
say  what  was  in  his  mind,  —  that  the  powers 
of  government  were  already  too  strong,  and 
needed  to  be  diminished.  "  Without  entering 
into  the  question  whether  the  power  devolved 
on  the  general  government  by  the  Constitution 
exceeds  that  measure  which  in  its  formation  I 
would  have  been  willing  to  bestow,  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  declaring  that  it  does  not  fall 
short  of  it;  that  I  dread  its  extension,  by 
whatever  means,  and  shall  always  oppose  meas 
ures  whose  object  or  tendency  is  to  effect  it.'* 
Throughout  the  speech  he  stood  on  the  defen 
sive  ;  he  evaded  the  challenge  that  Bayard 
threw  down. 

The  same  caution  was  repeated  in  the  judi 
ciary  debate  where  there  was  still  less  excuse 


68  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

for  timidity.  The  bill  could  be  defended  only 
on  the  ground  that  the  new  Judiciary  had 
been  intended  to  strengthen  the  national  at 
the  expense  of  the  state  courts ;  and  that  the 
principle  of  limited  powers  could  only  be  main 
tained  by  fostering  the  energies  of  the  States, 
and  especially  of  the  state  Judiciaries,  and  by 
protecting  them  from  the  interference  of  the 
general  government.  Randolph  showed  him 
self  afraid  of  this  reasoning;  his  party  dreaded 
it ;  the  President  discouraged  it ;  and  the  fed 
eralists  would  have  been  delighted  to  call  it 
out.  When,  on  February  20,  1802,  Bayard 
concluded  his  long  judiciary  speech,  Randolph 
again  rose  to  answer  him,  and  again  took  the 
defensive.  In  an  ingenious  and  vigorous  argu 
ment,  as  nearly  statesman-like  as  any  he  ever 
made,  he  defended  the  repeal  as  constitu 
tional,  and  certainly  with  success.  He  con 
ceded  a  great  deal  to  the  opposition.  "  I  am 
free  to  declare  that  if  the  intent  of  this  bill 
is  to  get  rid  of  the  judges,  it  is  a  perversion 
of  your  power  to  a  base  purpose ;  it  is  an  un 
constitutional  act.  The  quo  animo  determines 
the  nature  of  this  act,  as  it  determines  the  in 
nocence  or  guilt  of  other  acts."  What,  then, 
was  the  quo  animo,  the  intent,  which  constrained 
him  to  this  repeal  ?  Surely  this  was  the  mo 
ment  for  laying  down  those  broad  and  perma- 


IN  HARNESS.  69 

nent  principles  which  the  national  legislature 
ought  in  future  to  observe  in  dealing  with  ex 
tensions  of  the  central  power  ;  now,  if  ever,  Ran 
dolph  should  have  risen  to  the  height  of  that 
really  great  argument  which  alone  justifies  his 
existence  or  perpetuates  his  memory  as  a  states 
man.  What  was  his  "  substantial  reform  "  ? 
What  were  its  principles  ?  What  its  limits  ?  "  If 
you  are  precluded  from  passing  this  law  lest 
depraved  men  make  it  a  precedent  to  destroy 
the  independence  of  your  Judiciary,  do  you  not 
concede  that  a  desperate  faction,  finding  them 
selves  about  to  be  dismissed  from  the  confi 
dence  of  their  country,  may  pervert  the  power 
of  erecting  courts,  to  provide  to  an  extent  for 
their  adherents  and  themselves  ?  "  "  We  assert 
that  we  are  not  clothed  with  the  tremendous 
power  of  erecting,  in  defiance  of  the  whole  spirit 
and  express  letter  of  the  Constitution,  a  vast 
judicial  aristocracy  over  the  heads  of  our  fel 
low  citizens,  on  whose  labor  it  is  to  prey."  "  It 
is  not  on  account  of  the  paltry  expense  of  the 
new  establishment  that  I  wish  to  put  it  down. 
No,  sir!  It  is  to  give  the  death-blow  to  the 
pretension  of  rendering  the  Judiciary  an  hospi 
tal  for  decayed  politicians ;  to  prevent  the  state 
courts  from  being  engulfed  by  those  of  the 
Union  ;  to  destroy  the  monstrous  ambition  of 
arrogating  to  this  House  the  right  of  evading 


70  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

all  the  prohibitions  of  the  Constitution,  and 
holding  the  nation  at  bay." 

That  is  all !  Just  enough  to  betray  his 
purpose  without  justifying  it;  to  show  temper 
without  proving  courage  or  forethought !  This 
was  not  the  way  in  which  Gallatin  and  Mad 
ison  had  led  their  side  of  the  House.  Take 
it  as  one  will,  all  this  talk  about  "  judicial  aris 
tocracy"  preying  on  labor,  these  sneers  at 
"  decayed  politicians,"  was  poor  stuff.  Worse 
than  this :  without  a  thorough  justification  in 
principle,  the  repeal  itself  was  a  blow  at  the 
very  doctrine  of  strict  construction,  since  it 
strained  the  powers  of  Congress  by  a  danger 
ous  precedent,  without  touching  the  power  of 
the  Judiciary  ;  it  was  the  first  of  many  in 
stances  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration 
unintentionally  enlarged  and  exaggerated  the 
powers  of  the  general  government  in  one  or 
another  of  its  branches. 

By  way  of  conclusion  to  a  speech  which,  as 
Randolph  must  have  felt,  was  neither  candid  nor 
convincing,  he  made  a  remark  which  showed 
that  he  was  still  jealous  of  executive  influence, 
and  that  he  wished  to  act  honestly,  even  where 
his  own  party  was  concerned,  in  proving  his 
good  faith.  Mr.  Bayard  twitted  him  with  be 
ing  a  mere  tool  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  sneer 
rankled.  "  If  the  gentleman  is  now  anxious  to 


IN  HARNESS.  71 

protect  the  independence  of  this  and  the  other 
House  of  Congress  against  executive  influence, 
regardless  of  his  motives,  I  pledge  myself  to 
support  any  measure  which  he  may  bring  for 
ward  for  that  purpose,  and  I  believe  I  may 
venture  to  pledge  every  one  of  my  friends." 
Whether  Mr.  Jefferson  would  be  flattered  by 
this  hint  that  his  finger  was  too  active  in  legis 
lation  seems  to  have  been  a  matter  about  which 
Randolph  was  indifferent. 

The  Judiciary  Bill,  however,  was  not  Ran 
dolph's  work,  but  was  rather  imposed  upon 
him  by  the  party.  His  speech  showed  that 
he  was  in  harness,  under  strict  discipline,  and 
rather  anxious  to  disguise  the  full  strength  of 
his  opinions  than  to  lay  down  any  party  doc 
trine.  The  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  large 
majority,  and  became  law,  while  the  practical 
work  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  fell 
to  Randolph's  special  care,  and  proved  serious 
enough  to  prevent  his  eccentric  mind  from 
worrying  about  possible  evils  in  a  distant 
future.  He  was  obliged  to  master  Gallatin's 
financial  scheme ;  to  explain  and  defend  his 
economies,  the  abolition  of  taxes,  and  operations 
in  exchange ;  details  of  financial  legislation 
which  were  as  foreign  to  Randolph's  taste  and 
habits  of  mind  as  they  were  natural  to  Galla- 
tin.  This  was  the  true  limit  of  his  responsi- 


72  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

bility,  and  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  he 
was  otherwise  consulted  by  the  President  or  the 
Cabinet. 

The  federalists,  who  were  better  men  of 
business  and  more  formidable  debaters  than 
the  republican  majority,  offered  the  usual  op 
position  and  asked  the  ordinary  troublesome 
questions.  At  this  early  day  the  rules  of  the 
House  had  not  been  altered  ;  to  stop  debate 
by  silencing  the  minority  was  impossible,  and 
therefore  Randolph  and  his  friends  undertook 
to  stop  debate  by  silencing  themselves,  an 
swering  no  questions,  listening  to  no  criticisms, 
and  voting  solidly  as  the  administration  di 
rected.  Such  a  policy  has  long  since  proved 
itself  to  be  not  only  dangerous  and  dictatorial, 
but  blundering,  for  it  gives  an  irresistible  ad 
vantage  of  sarcasm,  irony,  and  argument  to  the 
minority,  —  an  advantage  which  the  federal 
ists  were  quick  to  use.  After  a  short  trial  the 
experiment  was  given  up.  The  republicans  re 
sumed  their  tongues,  a  little  mortified  at  the 
ridicule  they  had  invited,*  and  in  future  they 
preferred  the  more  effective  policy  of  gagging 
their  opponents  rather  than  themselves  ;  but 
there  remained  the  remarkable  fact  that  this 
attempt  to  check  waste  of  time  was  made  un 
der  the  leadership  of  John  Randolph,  who  in 
later  years  wasted  without  the  least  compunc- 


IN  HARNESS.  73 

tion  more  public  time  than  any  public  man 
of  his  day  in  discursive  and  unprofitable  talk. 
The  explanation  is  easy.  In  1802  Randolph 
and  his  party  wished  to  prove  their  compe 
tence  and  to  make  a  reputation  as  practical 
men  of  business ;  they  frowned  upon  waste  of 
time,  and  wanted  the  public  to  understand  that 
they  were  not  to  blame  for  it.  Randolph  set 
the  example  by  speaking  as  little  as  possible, 
always  to  the  point,  and  by  indulging  his  re 
bellious  temper  only  so  far  as  might  safely  be 
allowed;  that  is  to  say,  in  outbursts  against 
the  federalists  alone. 

He  gained  ground  at  this  session,  and  was  a 
more  important  man  in  May,  1802,  when  he 
rode  home  to  Bizarre,  than  in  the  previous 
autumn  when  he  left  it.  Congress  had  done 
good  work  under  his  direction.  The  internal 
taxes  were  abolished  and  half  the  government 
patronage  cut  off ;  the  army  and  navy  suffered 
what  Mr.  Jefferson  called  a  "  chaste  reforma 
tion  ;"  the  new  federalist  judiciary  was  swept 
away.  It  is  true  that  with  all  these  reforms 
in  detail  not  one  dangerous  power  had  been 
expressly  limited,  nor  had  one  word  of  the 
Constitution  been  altered  or  defined ;  no  feder 
alist  precedents,  not  even  the  Alien  and  Sedi 
tion  laws,  were  branded  as  unconstitutional  by 
either  House  of  Congress  or  by  the  Executive. 


74  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

The  government  was  reformed,  as  an  army  may 
be  cut  down,  by  dismissing  half  the  rank  and 
file  and  reducing  the  expenses,  while  leaving 
all  its  latent  strength  ready  at  any  moment 
for  recalling  the  men  and  renewing  the  extrav 
agance.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Ran 
dolph  now  saw  or  cared  for  this  fact,  although 
he  afterwards  thought  proper  to  throw  upon 
others  the  responsibility  for  inaction. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN. 

AFTER  the  session  closed,  early  in  May, 
1802,  Randolph  retired  to  Bizarre  and  re 
mained  there,  undisturbed  by  politics,  until 
called  back  to  Washington  by  the  meeting  of 
Congress  in  December.  In  the  interval  events 
happened  which  threatened  to  upset  all  the 
theories  of  the  new  administration.  Napoleon, 
having  made  peace  with  England,  turned  his 
attention  to  America,  sending  a  huge  arma 
ment  to  St.  Domingo  to  rescue  that  island 
from  Toussaint  and  the  blacks,  while  at  the 
same  instant  it  was  made  known  that  he  had 
recovered  Louisiana  from  Spain,  and  was  about 
to  secure  his  new  possession.  Finally,  at  the 
close  of  the  year,  it  was  suddenly  announced 
that  the  Spanish  Intendant  at  New  Orleans 
had  put  an  end  to  the  right  of  deposit  in  that 
city,  recognized  by  the  Spanish  treaty  of 
1795.  The  world  naturally  jumped  to  the  con 
clusion  that  all  these  measures  were  parts  of 
one  great  scheme,  and  that  a  war  with  France 
was  inevitable. 


76  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Randolph's  position  was  that  of  a  mere 
mouth-piece  of  the  President,  and  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  adopted  a  policy  not  without  inconven 
ience  to  subordinates.  To  foreign  nations  Mr. 
Jefferson  spoke  in  a  very  warlike  tone  ;  at  home 
he  ardently  wished  to  soothe  irritation,  and  to 
prevent  himself  from  being  driven  into  a  war 
distasteful  to  him.  For  Mr.  Jefferson  to  act 
this  double  part  was  not  difficult;  his  nature 
was  versatile,  supple,  gentle,  and  not  conten 
tious  ;  for  Randolph  to  imitate  him  was  not  so 
easy,  yet  on  Randolph  the  burden  fell.  He 
was  commissioned  by  the  government  to  man 
age  the  most  delicate  part  of  the  whole  busi 
ness,  the  action  of  the  House.  It  was  Ran 
dolph  who,  on  December  17,  1802,  moved  for 
the  Spanish  papers ;  forced  the  House  into  se 
cret  committee,  which  he  emphatically  called 
"  his  offspring ;  "  kept  separate  the  public  and 
the  secret  communications  from  the  President ; 
and  held  the  party  together  on  a  peace  policy 
which  the  western  republicans  did  not  like,  in 
opposition  to  the  federalists'  war  policy  which 
many  republicans  preferred.  Unfortunately, 
the  debates  were  mostly  secret,  and  very  little 
ever  leaked  out ;  this  only  is  certain :  the  Presi 
dent  sent  to  the  House  a  public  and  cautious 
message,  with  documents ;  Randolph  carried 
the  House  into  secret  session  to  debate  them ; 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  77 

there  some  administration  member,  either  Ran 
dolph  or  Nicholson,  produced  a  resolution, 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  Madison  or  by  the  President 
himself,  appropriating  two  million  dollars  "  to 
defray  any  expenses  which  may  be  incurred  in 
relation  to  the  intercourse  between  the  United 
States  and  foreign  nations  ; "  this  resolution  was 
referred  to  a  committee,  with  Nicholson  for 
chairman,  who  made  a  report  explaining  that 
the  object  of  the  appropriation  was  to  purchase 
East  and  West  Florida  and  New  Orleans,  in 
preference  to  making  war  for  them ;  and,  on 
the  strength  of  this  secret  report,  the  House 
voted  the  money. 

The  public  debate  had  been  running  on  at 
intervals  while  these  secret  proceedings  were  in 
hand,  but  the  reports  are  singularly  meagre  and 
dull.  It  seems  to  have  been  Randolph's  policy 
to  hold  his  party  together  by  keeping  open  the 
gap  between  them  and  the  federalists,  and  these 
tactics  were  not  only  sound  in  party  policy,  but 
were  suited  to  his  temper  and  talents.  The 
federalists  wanted  war,  not  so  much  with  Spain 
as  with  Napoleon.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
wanted  it,  not  because  they  cared  for  the 
federalists'  objects,  but  because  they  were 
more  sure  to  get  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
by  fighting  than  by  temporizing.  To  prevent 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  from  joining  the  op- 


78  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

position,  it  was  necessary  to  repel  the  federal 
ists,  and  yet  promise  war  to  the  western  repub 
licans  in  case  the  proposed  purchase  should 
fail.  No  task  could  be  more  congenial  to  Ran 
dolph's  mind  than  that  of  repelling  insidious 
advances  from  federalists.  He  trounced  them 
vigorously;  showed  that  they  had  offered  to 
sacrifice  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  some 
years  before  there  had  been  a  federalist  party 
at  all,  or  even  a  House  of  Representatives ; 
and  after  proving  their  innate  wickedness  and 
the  virtues  of  the  party  now  in  power,  he  con 
cluded,  — 

"  When  an  administration  have  formed  the  design 
of  subverting  the  public  liberties,  of  enriching  them 
selves  or  their  adherents  out  of  the  public  purse,  or 
of  crushing  all  opposition  beneath  the  strong  hand 
of  power,  war  has  ever  been  the  favorite  minis 
terial  specific.  Hence  have  we  seen  men  in  power 
too  generally  inclined  to  hostile  measures,  and  hence 
the  opposition  have  been,  as  uniformly,  the  cham 
pions  of  peace,  not  choosing  to  nerve  with  new  vigor, 
the  natural  consequence  of  war,  hands  on  whose 
hearts  or  heads  they  were  unwilling  to  bestow  their 
confidence.  But  how  shall  we  account  for  the  ex 
ception  which  is  now  exhibited  to  this  hitherto  re 
ceived  maxim  ?  On  the  one  part  the  solution  is  easy. 
An  administration,  under  which  our  country  flourishes 
beyond  all  former  example,  with  no  sinister  views, 
seeking  to  pay  off  the  public  incumbrances,  to  lessen 


A   CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  79 

the  public  burdens,  and  to  leave  to  each  man  the  en 
joyment  of  the  fruits  of  his  own  labor,  are  there 
fore  desirous  of  peace  so  long  as  it  can  be  preserved 
consistently  with  the  interests  and  honor  of  the  coun 
try.  On  the  other  hand,  what  do  you  see  ?  Shall  I 
say  an  opposition  sickening  at  the  sight  of  the  public 
prosperity ;  seeking  through  war,  confusion,  and  a 
consequent  derangement  of  our  finances,  that  aggran 
dizement  which  the  public  felicity  must  forever  for 
bid  ?  No,  sir  !  My  respect  for  this  House  and  for 
those  gentlemen  forbids  this  declaration,  whilst,  at 
the  same  time,  I  am  unable  to  account  on  any  other 
principle  for  their  conduct." 

In  all  this  matter,  so  far  as  general  policy 
was  concerned,  the  administration  behaved  dis 
creetly  and  well.  No  fault  is  to  be  found  with 
Randolph,  unless,  perhaps,  the  usual  one  of 
temper.  In  every  point  of  view,  peace  was  the 
true  policy ;  forbearance  towards  Spain  proved 
to  be  the  proper  course ;  distrust  of  the  federal 
ists  was  fully  justified.  There  was  no  exag 
geration  in  the  picture  of  public  content  which 
he  drew,  or  in  the  rage  with  which  the  federal 
ists  looked  at  it.  The  still  unknown  character 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  the  only  cloud  in 
the  political  horizon ;  and  until  this  developed 
itself  there  was  no  occasion  for  the  President  to 
hazard  the  success  of  his  pacific  policy. 

So  far   as   Louisiana  was    concerned,  Ran- 


80  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

dolph's  activity  seems  to  have  stopped  here. 
He  did  his  part  efficiently,  and  supported  the 
administration  even  more  steadily  than  usual. 
In  the  other  work  of  the  session,  he  was  the 
most  active  member  of  the  House  ;  all  financial 
business  came  under  his  charge,  while  much 
that  was  not  financial  depended  on  his  ap 
proval  ;  in  short,  he  with  his  friend  Nicholson 
and  the  Speaker  controlled  legislation. 

It  is  not,  however,  always  easy,  or  even  pos 
sible,  to  see  how  far  this  influence  went.  One 
biographer  has  said  that  at  this  session  he  spoke 
and  voted  for  a  bill  to  prevent  the  importation 
of  slaves  ;  but  this  was  not  the  case.  Some  of 
the  States,  alarmed  at  the  danger  of  being  in 
undated  with  rebel  negroes  from  St.  Domingo 
and  Guadaloupe,  had  passed  laws  to  protect 
themselves,  and,  in  order  to  make  this  legisla 
tion  effective,  a  monstrous  bill  was  reported  by 
a  committee.of  Congress,  according  to  which  no 
captain  of  a  vessel  could  bring  into  the  ports 
of  any  State  which  had  passed  these  laws  a 
negro,  mulatto,  or  person  of  color,  under  penalty 
of  one  thousand  dollars  for  each.  No  negro  or 
mulatto,  slave  or  free,  fresh  from  bloody  St. 
Domingo  or  from  the  Guinea  coast,  whether 
born  and  educated  in  Paris,  a  citizen  of  France, 
or  a  free  citizen  of  the  United  States,  a  soldier 
of  the  Revolution,  could,  under  this  bill,  sail 


A   CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  81 

into  any  of  these  ports  without  subjecting  the 
master  of  his  vessel  to  a  fine  of  one  thousand 
dollars.  Even  the  collectors  of  customs  were 
directed  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  of  the 
States.  Such  a  measure  excited  opposition. 
Leading  republicans  from  the  North  pointed 
out  the  unconstitutional  and  impossible  nature 
of  its  provisions,  and  moved  its  recommitment. 
So  far  as  Randolph  is  concerned,  the  report 
mentions  him  only  as  one  of  those  who  opposed 
recommitment,  and  insisted  on  the  passage  of 
the  bill  as  it  stood.  The  opposition  carried  its 
point ;  the  bill  was  amended  and  passed  on 
February  17,  1803.  Randolph  did  not  vote  on 
its  passage,  although  his  name  appears  at  the 
next  division  the  same  day. 

He  seems  to  have  been  beaten  again  on  the 
subject  of  the  Mint,  which  he  moved  to  abolish. 
Indeed,  after  making  one  strong  effort  to  over 
come  opposition  to  this  measure,  he  was  so  de 
cidedly  defeated  that  he  never  touched  the 
subject  again,  and  ceased  to  sneer  at  the  "  in 
signia  of  sovereignty."  On  the  other  hand,  he 
carried,  without  serious  opposition,  the  impor 
tant  bill  for  establishing  a  fund  for.  schools 
and  roads  out  of  the  proceeds  of  land  sales  in 
the  Northwestern  territory,  and  he  shared 
with  his  friend,  Nicholson,  the  burden  of  im 
peaching  Judge  Pickering,  whose  mental  con- 

6 


•82  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

dition  rendered  him  incapable  of  sitting  on  the 
bench. 

With  this  impeachment,  on  March  4,  1803, 
the  session  closed.  By  the  federalists,  the  at 
tack  on  Judge  Pickering  was  taken  as  the  first 
of  a  series  of  impeachments,  intended  to  revolu 
tionize  the  political  character  of  the  courts,  but 
there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  this  was  then  the 
intent  of  the  majority.  The  most  obnoxious 
justice  on  the  supreme  bench  was  Samuel 
Chase  of  Maryland,  whose  violence  as  a  polit 
ical  partisan  had  certainly  exposed  him  to  the 
danger  of  impeachment ;  but  two  years  had 
now  passed  without  producing  any  sign  of  an 
intention  to  disturb  him,  and  it  might  be  sup 
posed  that  the  administration  thus  condoned 
his  offences.  Unluckily,  Judge  Chase  had  not 
the  good  taste  or  the  judgment  to  be  quiet. 
He  irritated  his  enemies  by  new  indiscretions, 
and  on  May  13,  1803,  nearly  three  months 
after  Pickering's  impeachment,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
in  a  letter  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  suggested 
that  it  would  be  well  to  take  him  in  hand  :  — 

"You  must  have  heard  of  the  extraordinary 
charge  of  Chase  to  the  granVl  jury  at  Baltimore. 
Ought  this  seditious  and  official  attack  on  the  prin 
ciples  of  our  Constitution  and  on  the  proceedings  of 
a  State  to  go  unpunished  ?  And  to  whom  so  point 
edly  as  yourself  will  the  public  look  for  the  neces 


\ 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  83 

sary  measures  ?  I  ask  these  questions  for  your  con 
sideration.  As  for  myself,  it  is  better  that  I  should 
not  interfere." 

Accordingly,  Nicholson  took  up  the  matter, 
and  consulted  his  friends,  among  others  Macon, 
the  Speaker,  who,  in  a  letter  dated  August  6, 
1803,  expressed  grave  doubts  whether  the 
judge  ought  to  be  impeached  for  a  charge  to 
the  grand  jury,  and  his  firm  conviction  that,  if 
fmy  attempt  at  impeachment  should  be  made, 
Nicholson,  at  all  events,  ought  not  to  be  the 
leader.  On  this  hint  that  no  candidate  for  the 
judge's  office  should  take  the  lead,  Nicholson 
seems  to  have  passed  on  to  Randolph  the 
charge  he  had  received  from  the  President. 

As  usual,  Randolph  passed  his  summer  at 
Bizarre.  Some  of  his  letters  at  this  period  are 
preserved,  but  have  no  special  interest,  except 
for  a  single  sentence  in  one  addressed  to  Gal- 
latin  on  June  4,  which  seems  to  prove  that 
Randolph  was  not  very  serious  in  his  parade 
of  devotion  to  peace.  Monroe  had  been  sent 
to  France  to  negotiate  for  the  purchase  of  New 
Orleans,  while  at  home  not  only  the  press, 
but  the  President,  in  order  to  support  his  nego 
tiation,  openly  threatened  war  should  he  fail. 
Randolph  said,  — 

"  I  think  you  wise  men  at  the  seat  of  government 


84  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

have  much  to  answer  for  in  respect  to  the  temper 
prevailing  around  you.  By  their  fruit  shall  ye  know 
them.  Is  there  something  more  of  system  yet  intro 
duced  among  you  ?  Or  are  you  still  in  chaos,  without 
form  and  void  ?  Should  you  have  leisure,  give  me 
a  hint  of  the  first  news  from  Mr.  Monroe.  After 
all  the  vaporing,  I  have  no  expectation  of  a  serious 
war.  Tant  pis  pour  nous  !  " 

"  So  much  the  worse  for  us  !  "  This  sounds 
little  like  his  comments  on  the  war  policy  of 
the  federalists. 

The  criticism,  too,  on  the  want  of  system  in 
the  Cabinet  reflected  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  want  of 
method  and  grasp.  The  President,  it  seems, 
enforced  no  order  in  his  surroundings,  but  al 
lowed  each  cabinet  officer  to  go  his  own  gait, 
without  consulting  the  rest.  Apparently  Gal- 
latin  shared  this  opinion,  annoyed  at  his  failure 
to  get  Mr.  Jefferson's  support  in  efforts  to  con 
trol  waste  in  the  navy. 

All  this  grumbling  was  idle  talk.  For  this 
time,  again,  Mr.  Jefferson's  happy  star  shone 
so  brightly  that  cavil  and  criticism  were  un 
noticed.  Little  as  Randolph  was  disposed  to 
bow  before  that  star,  he  could  not  help  himself 
where  such  uninterrupted  splendor  dazzled  all 
his  friends.  Within  a  month  after  this  letter 
was  written,  the  news  arrived  that  Monroe  had 
bought  New  Orleans;  had  bought  the  whole 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  85 

west  bank  of  the  Mississippi ;  had  bought, 
Heaven  only  knew  what !  the  whole  continent ! 
—  excepting  only  West  Florida,  which  had 
been  the  chief  object  of  his  mission. 

The  effect  of  such  extraordinary  success  was 
instantaneous.  Opposition  vanished.  The  fed 
eralists  kept  up  a  sharp  fusillade  of  slander  and 
abuse,  but  lost  ground  every  day,  and  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  stood  at  the  flood-mark  of  his  immense 
popularity  and  power,  while  Randolph  shared 
in  the  prestige  the  administration  had  gained. 
His  influence  in  the  House  became  irresistible, 
and  his  temper  more  domineering  than  ever. 
In  his  district  he  had  no  rival ;  in  the  House 
he  overrode  resistance.  The  next  session,  of 
1803-4,  was  a  long  series  of  personal  and  party 
triumphs. 

In  order  to  give  the  new  treaty  immediate 
effect,  Congress  was  called  for  October  17, 
1803.  Macon  was  again  chosen  Speaker ; 
Randolph  and  Nicholson,  at  the  head  of  the 
Ways  and  Means,  were  reinforced  by  Caesar  A. 
Rodney,  who  had  defeated  Bayard  in  Delaware. 
The  House  i plunged  at  once  into  the  Louisiana 
business.  Although  the  federalists  were  very 
imperfectly  informed,  they  divined  the  two 
weak  points  of  the  treaty  :  for  France  had  sold 
Louisiana  without  consulting  Spain,  although 
ahe  was  pledged  not  to  alienate  it  at  all,  and 


86  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

could  convey  no  good  title  without  Spain's  as 
sent  ;  she  had  sold  it,  too,  without  defining  its 
boundaries,  and  on  this  account  Spain  became 
again  a  party  to  the  bargain.  Spain  had  pro 
tested  against  the  sale  as  invalid  ;  it  was  to  be 
expected  that,  even  if  she  withdrew  her  protest 
against  the  sale,  she  would  insist  on  defining  the 
boundaries  to  suit  herself.  The  federalists  nat 
urally  wanted  to  know  what  Spain  had  to  say 
on  the  subject,  and  they  moved  for  the  papers. 
The  republicans  were  determined  not  to  gratify 
them,  and  Randolph  refused  the  papers. 

This  was  treading  very  closely  in  federalist 
footsteps,  for  few  acts  of  the  federalists  had  ex 
cited  more  criticism  than  their  refusal  of  papers 
in  the  dispute  over  Jay's  treaty.  Randolph 
rejected  the  federalist  doctrine  that  the  House 
had  nothing  to  do  but  to  carry  the  treaty  into 
effect,  yet  he  followed  it  so  closely  in  practice 
that  his  majority  almost  rebelled,  and  even 
Nicholson  could  not  be  induced  to  go  with  him. 
This,  however,  was  not  all.  Only  some  four 
months  before,  he  had  written  to  Gallatin  him 
self,  the  only  consistent  advocate  of  peace  in 
the  whole  government,  that  it  would  be  the 
worse  for  us  if  we  had  not  a  serious  war.  Like 
many  if  not  most  southern  men,  he  wanted  a 
war  with  Spain,  and  was  pacified  only  by  the 
assurance  that  Florida  would  certainly  be  ours 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  87 

without  it.  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison, 
Mr.  Monroe  and  Mr.  Livingston,  had  all  writ 
ten  or  said,  more  or  less  privately,  that  under 
the  treaty  a  fair  claim  could  be  set  up  to  West 
Florida  as  having  at  one  time  been  included  in 
Louisiana.  There  was  hardly  a  shadow  of  sub 
stance  in  this  assumption,  in  itself  an  insult  to 
Spain,  put  forward  without  the  sanction  of 
France,  and  calculated  to  embarrass  relations 
with  both  powers  ;  yet  Randolph,  as  though  in 
order  to  force  the  hands  of  government,  boldly 
stated  this  shadowy  claim  as  an  express  title : 
"  We  have  not  only  obtained  the  command  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  but  of  the  Mobile, 
with  its  widely  extended  branches,  and  there  is 
not  now  a  single  stream  of  note,  rising  within 
the  United  States  and  falling  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  which  is  not  entirely  our  own,  the  Ap- 
alachicola  excepted."  On  the  strength  of  this 
assertion,  which  he  afterwards  confessed  to  be 
unfounded,  he  reported  a  bill  which  authorized 
the  President,  whenever  he  should  deem  it 
expedient,  "  to  erect  the  shores,  waters,  and 
inlets  of  the  bay  and  river  of  Mobile,  and 
of  the  other  rivers,  creeks,  inlets,  and  bays 
emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  east  of  the 
said  river  Mobile,"  into  a  collection  district  of 
the  United  States,  with  ports  of  entry  and  with 
the  necessary  officers  of  revenue.  This  bill 


88  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

passed  through  Congress  and  was  signed  by  the 
President,  although  it  actually  annexed  by 
statute  the  whole  coast  of  Florida  on  the  Gulf. 
As  for  Spain,  Randolph  ignored  her  existence ; 
he  considered  her  right  of  reclamation  as  not 
worth  notice.  Nothing  could  have  tended  more 
directly  to  bring  on  the  war,  which  the  act  in 
directly  authorized  the  President  to  begin. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  one  point  in  this 
Louisiana  business  which  Randolph,  of  all  liv 
ing  men,  was  most  certain  to  mark  and  expose. 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  instantly  seen  it,  and  had 
lost  no  time  in  explaining  it  to  his  confidants. 
What  effect  would  the  acquisition  and  the  mode 
of  acquisition  have  upon  states'  rights  and  on 
the  Constitution?  No  one  could  doubt  the 
answer,  for  it  was  plain  that  the  Louisiana 
purchase,  in  every  possible  point  of  view,  was 
fatal  to  states'  rights.  From  the  ground  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  friends  had  consistently 
taken,  the  Constitution  was  a  carefully  con 
sidered  compact  between  certain  States,  with  a 
view  to  union  for  certain  defined  objects  ;  any 
measure  likely  to  alter  the  fixed  relations  and 
the  established  balances  of  the  Constitution 
without  an  amendment  required  the  consent  of 
all  the  parties;  it  might  even  be  argued,  as 
Timothy  Pickering  actually  did  assert,  that  in 
an  extreme  case  a  State  had  the  right  to  treat 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  89 

the  Constitution  as  abrogated  if  the  status  were 
altered  against  her  single  will.  The  Louisiana 
purchase  was  such  an  extreme  case.  No  one 
doubted,  and  Randolph  least  of  all,  that  it  com 
pletely  changed  the  conditions  of  the  constitu 
tional  compact ;  rendering  the  nation,  inde 
pendent  of  the  States,  master  of  an  empire 
immensely  greater  than  the  States  themselves ; 
pledging  the  nation  in  effect  to  the  admission 
of  indefinite  new  States ;  insuring  an  ultimate 
transfer  of  power  from  the  old  original  parties 
in  the  compact  to  the  new  States,  thus  forced 
on  their  society ;  and  foreboding  the  destruction 
of  states'  rights  by  securing  a  majority  of 
States,  without  traditions,  history,  or  character, 
the  mere  creatures  of  the  general  government, 
thousands  of  miles  from  the  old  Union,  inhab 
ited  in  1803,  so  far  as  the  territory  was  popu 
lated  at  all,  only  by  Frenchmen,  Spaniards,  or 
Indians,  and  fitted  by  climate  and  conditions  for 
a  people  different  from  that  of  the  Atlantic  sea 
board.  There  was,  indeed,  no  end  to  the  list 
of  instances  in  which  this  purchase  affected  the 
original  Union.  No  federalist  measure  had  ever 
approached  it  in  constitutional  importance.  The 
whole  list  of  questionable  federalist  precedents 
was  insignificant  beside  this  one  act. 

By  what  authority  was  the  Union  to  put  on 
this  new  character  and  to  accept  this  destiny, 


90  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

of  which  no  man  had  an  idea  on  July  3,  1803, 
and  which  was  an  accomplished  fact  on  the 
next  day?  Who  did  it?  It  was  the  perfectly 
independent  act  of  President  Jefferson  and 
twenty-six  senators.  This  constitutional  cata 
clysm  was  effected  by  the  treaty-making  power. 
Congress  had  not  been  otherwise  consulted ;  the 
States  had  not  been  called  upon  in  any  other 
way  to  assent;  the  central  government,  not  the 
States,  was  party  to  the  new  contract. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  this  far-reaching  action, 
scandalized  even  himself.  "  The  Executive," 
said  he,  "  has  done  an  act  beyond  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  legislature  must  ratify  it,  and  throw 
themselves  on  the  country  for  an  act  of  indem 
nity."  He  drew  the  necessary  amendment  to 
the  Constitution,  consulting  his  Cabinet,  and 
getting  official  opinions  ;  writing  to  his  friends, 
and  soon  receiving  letters  in  reply.  Shocked  to 
find  that  his  party,  perverted  by  the  possession 
of  power,  would  not  hear  of  amending  the  Con 
stitution  or  seeking  indemnity,  he  supplicated 
them  to  listen  to  him :  "  Our  peculiar  security 
is  in  the  possession  of  a  written  Constitution. 
Let  us  not  make  it  a  blank  paper  by  construc 
tion."  He  said  that  this  new  rule  of  construc 
tion  abolished  the  Constitution.  His  supporters 
persisted  in  their  own  contrary  opinion,  and  in 
the  end  he  acquiesced. 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  91 

Randolph  was  probably  the  most  thorough 
going  states'-rights  man  in  the  republican  party, 
for  he   had   assailed   Patrick   Henry,  and  was 
one  day  to  stand  by  Calhoun  on  this  favorite 
creed.     So  extreme  were  his  views  that  at  a 
later  period  he  boasted  of  having  never  voted 
for  the  admission  of  any  new  State  into  the 
Union,  not  even  for  that  of  Ohio  in  the  session 
of  1802.     Now  that  the  federalists  were  out  of 
office,  they  too  had  become  alive  to  the  impor 
tance  of  this  principle,  for,  at  bottom,  Massachu 
setts  was  as  jealous  as  Virginia  of  any  stretch 
of  power  likely  to  weaken  her  influence.     The 
federalist  leaders  in  Congress,  accordingly,  now 
attacked  the  administration  for  exceeding  its 
powers,  and  Mr.  Griswold  of  New  York,  in  a 
temperate  and  reasonable  speech,  took  precisely 
the  ground  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  taken  in 
his  private  letters,  that  the  annexation  of  Lou 
isiana  and  its  inhabitants  by  treaty  was  a  plain 
violation  of   the   Constitution.      Randolph   re 
plied,  and  the  reply  was  a  curious  commentary 
on  his  past  and   future  political  life.     Not  a 
word  fell  from  his   lips  which  could   be  con 
strued  into  a  states'-rights  sentiment.     He  who 
had  raged  with  the  violence  of  a  wild  animal 
against   the   constitutional   theories  of   Wash 
ington  and  John  Adams  did  not  whisper  a  re 
monstrance    against   this   new   assumption    of 


92  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

power,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  made 
blank  paper  of  the  Constitution.  He  advanced 
an  astonishing  argument  to  show  that  a  right 
to  acquire  territory  must  exist,  because  the  na 
tional  boundaries  in  certain  directions,  under 
the  treaty  of  1783,  were  disputed  or  doubtful, 
and  because  the  government  had  obtained  ter 
ritory  at  Natchez  and  elsewhere  without  rais 
ing  the  question.  The  federalists,  he  said,  had 
wanted  to  seize  New  Orleans  by  force,  and 
were  therefore  estopped  from  reasoning  that  it 
could  not  be  annexed  by  treaty.  The  condi 
tions  of  acquisition,  moreover,  being  a  part  of 
the  price,  were  involved  in  the  right  to  acquire  ; 
for  if  the  Constitution  covered  the  right  to  pur 
chase  territory,  it  covered  also  the  price  to  be 
paid  for  that  territory,  whether  this  included 
the  naturalization  of  the  inhabitants  or  special 
privileges  to  foreign  nations.  Acting  doubtless 
under  the  advice  and  instructions  of  Mr.  Mad 
ison,  he  denied  that  there  was  any  unconstitu 
tional  stipulation  in  the  treaty  ;  he  even  denied 
that  the  pledge  given  in  it,  that  "  the  inhabit 
ants  of  the  ceded  territory  shall  be  incorporated 
in  the  Union,"  meant  that  they  should  be  in 
corporated  into  the  Union  of  States,  or  that  the 
further  pledge,  that  they  should  be  "  admitted 
as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the  principles 
of  the  federal  Constitution,  to  the  enjoyment  of 


A  CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  93 

all  the  rights,  advantages,  and  immunities  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States,"  meant  that  they 
were  to  enjoy  any  political  rights. 

If  this  reasoning  satisfied  Randolph,  it  should 
certainly  have  pleased  those  who  had  labored 
for  fifteen  years,  against  the  bitterest  opposition 
from  Randolph  and  his  friends,  to  strengthen 
the  national  government;  but  how  Mr.  Ran 
dolph,  after  making  such  an  argument,  could 
ever  again  claim  credit  as  a  champion  of  states' 
rights  is  a  question  which  he  alone  could  answer. 
Under  such  rules  of  construction,  according  to 
Mr.  Jefferson's  view,  the  President  and  two 
thirds  of  the  senators  might  abolish  the  States 
themselves  and  make  serfs  of  every  Randolph 
in  Virginia,  as  indeed,  some  sixty  years  after 
wards,  was  done.  This  is  no  captious  criticism. 
Mr.  Jefferson's  language  is  emphatic.  He  de 
clared  that  this  construction  "  would  make  our 
powers  boundless,"  and  it  did  so.  Randolph 
himself  acknowledged  his  mistake.  "  We  were 
forewarned  !  "  he  cried  in  1822.  "  I  for  one, 
although  forewarned,  was  not  forearmed.  If  I 
had  been,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that 
I  would  have  said  to  the  imperial  Dejanira  of 
modern  times, '  Take  back  your  fatal  present ! ' ' 
From  this  moment  it  became  folly  to  deny  that 
the  general  government  was  the  measure  of  its 
own  powers,  for  Randolph's  own  act  had  changed 


94  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

theory  into  fact,  and  he  could  no  more  undo 
what  he  had  done  than  he  could  stop  the  earth 
in  its  revolution. 

Having  swallowed  without  even  a  grimace 
this  enormous  camel,  Randolph  next  strained 
at  a  gnat.  A  bill  came  down  from  the  Senate 
authorizing  the  President  to  take  possession  of 
the  new  territory  and  to  exercise  all  the  pow 
ers  of  government  until  Congress  should  make 
provision  on  the  subject.  Of  course  the  au 
thority  thus  conveyed  was  despotic,  but  so  was 
the  purchase  itself ;  circumstances  allowed  no 
delay,  and  the  President  was  properly  responsi 
ble  for  his  trust,  which  would  last  only  so  long 
as  Congress  permitted.  Randolph,  however, 
was  vigilant  in  his  watchfulness  against  the 
danger  of  executive  encroachments.  "  If  we 
give  this  power  out  of  our  hands,  it  may  be 
irrevocable  until  Congress  shall  have  made 
legislative  provision ;  that  is,  a  single  branch 
of  the  government,  the  executive  branch,  with 
a  small  minority  of  either  House,  may  prevent 
its  resumption."  Had  he  refused  to  confer  this 
dictatorial  power  at  all,  he  would  at  least  have 
had  a  principle  to  support  him,  but  he  was 
ready  to  approve  despotic  principles  for  four 
months,  till  the  session  ended,  though  not  a 
moment  longer.  In  the  end  he  allowed  the 
President  to  govern  Louisiana  with  the  powers 


A   CENTRALIZING  STATESMAN.  95 

of  a  King  of  Spain  until  a  rebellion  became  im 
minent. 

Of  other  measures,  only  two  were  of  enough 
interest  to  deserve  notice.  While  the  regu 
lar  business  of  the  session  went  on,  exacting 
that  attention  which  the  chairman  of  Ways 
and  Means  must  always  expect  to  give,  two 
subjects  came  before  the  House,  which  were 
to  decide  Randolph's  future  career,  —  the  im 
peachment  of  Judge  Chase  and  the  Yazoo 
claims.  Thus  far  all  had  gone  well  with  him ; 
his  influence  had  steadily  increased  with  every 
year  of  his  service ;  his  control  over  the  House 
was  great,  for  among  the  republicans  who 
obeyed  his  lead,  there  was  not  a  single  mem 
ber  competent  to  dispute  it.  Already  the  fed 
eralists  dreaded  this  aristocratic  democrat,  who, 
almost  alone  in  his  party,  had  the  ability  and 
the  courage  to  act  upon  his  theories ;  and  they 
looked  on  with  a  genuine  feeling  of  terror,  as 
though  they  saw  in  his  strange  and  restless  face 
a  threat  of  social  disaster  and  civil  anarchy, 
when,  with  the  whole  power  of  the  administra 
tion  behind  him  and  a  majority  of  two  to  one 
in  the  House,  he  rose  in  his  place  to  move  the 
impeachment  of  Judge  Chase. 


CHAPTER  V. 

VAULTING  AMBITION". 

THERE  is  nothing  to  show  that  Randolph  was 
the  real  author  of  Judge  Chase's  impeachment ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  appears  from  the  letters  al 
ready  quoted  that  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  was 
the  man  who  set  this  engine  in  motion,  and 
that  it  was  Nicholson  through  whom  the  Presi 
dent  acted.  Nicholson  impeached  Judge  Pick 
ering,  and  was  the  only  prominent  manager 
in  that  cause,  of  which  he  was  now  in  charge. 
Nicholson,  too,  had  made  all  the  preparations 
for  this  second,  more  serious  exercise  of  the  im 
peaching  power.  However  readily  the  scheme 
may  have  fallen  in  with  Randolph's  wishes  and 
prejudices,  it  was  certainty  Nicholson  who  urged 
him  to  action,  and  provided  him  with  such  law 
as  he  could  not  do  without.  Properly,  there 
fore,  the  credit  or  discredit  of  the  measure 
should  have  fallen  upon  Nicholson  and  Mr. 
Jefferson,  but  Randolph  willingly  relieved  them 
of  the  load. 

Judge  Chase's  recent  charge  to  the  Balti 
more  grand  jury  in  May,  1803,  offensive  as  it 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  97 

certainly  was,  seemed  hardly  such  a  high  crime 
or  misdemeanor  as  to  render  his  conviction  cer 
tain,  and  the  impeachers  thought  it  safer  to 
strengthen  their  cause  by  alleging  other  of 
fences  of  earlier  date.  Yet  Chase  had  sat  on 
the  bench  and  administered  justice  for  three 
years  sinpe  Mr.  Jefferson's  election  without  a 
sign  of  impeachment,  and  without  complaint 
from  the  suitors  in  his  court.  To  go  back 
four  years,  and  search  old  court  records  for 
offences  forgotten  and  condoned,  was  awk 
ward.  Could  the  impeachers  excuse  themselves 
and  their  House  for  permitting  this  notorious 
criminal  to  wear  his  robes  and  expound  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  for  so  many  years, 
without  an  attempt  on  their  part  to  relieve  a 
groaning  people  from  the  tyranny  of  a  worse 
than  Jeffries  or  Scroggs?  Could  the  House 
venture  to  set  out  on  this  crusade  against  a  co 
ordinate  and  independent  branch  of  the  govern 
ment,  without  at  least  an  invitation  from  the 
Executive  ?  Mr.  Jefferson,  however,  would  not 
burn  his  fingers  in  such  a  flame.  "  As  for  my 
self,  it  is  better  that  I  should  not  interfere." 
Nicholson  and  Randolph  were  hot-headed  men  ! 
They  had  the  courage  of  their  convictions,  and 
they  accepted  the  difficult  task. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  a  little  too  apt  to  evade 
open  responsibility;   the  number  of  instances 
7 


98  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

in  which  he  encouraged  others  to  do  what  he 
would  not  do  himself  is  so  large  as  to  strike 
even  careless  attention.  He  would  have  shud 
dered  at  the  idea  of  betraying  friends,  but  it  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  a  sanguine  temperament 
and  perfect  faith  in  his  own  honest  purposes 
sometimes  caused  him  to  lead  those  friends 
into  difficulties  from  which,  in  case  of  failure, 
he  could  not  extricate  them.  Had  Randolph 
been  a  wise  or  cautious  man,  he  would  have 
insisted  that  nothing  should  induce  him  to 
touch  the  impeachment  until  the  President 
had  sent  to  the  House  some  official  message, 
as  in  the  case  of  Judge  Pickering,  upon  which 
an  inquiry  might  be  founded.  Being  neither 
wise  nor  cautious,  but  on  the  contrary  deeply 
jealous  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  interference, 
Randolph  undertook  to  act  alone.  Perhaps, 
like  many  another  man,  his  mind  was  over 
mastered  by  the  splendor  of  the  Hastings 
trial,  then  so  recent,  which  has  dazzled  the 
good  sense  of  many  politicians ;  perhaps  he  was 
deluded  by  the  ambition  to  rival  his  great 
teacher,  Edmund  Burke;  but  more  probably 
he  was  guided  only  by  the  political  faith  of  his 
youth,  by  the  influence  of  Nicholson,  and  his 
own  impatient  temper. 

On  January  5, 1804,  Randolph  rose  to  move 
for  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  Judge  Chase. 


No  official  document  exis 


such  a  motion,  and  he  condescended  to  act 
little  comedy,  not  so  respectful  to  the**  House 
or  the  country  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  a  Randolph,  whose  sense  of  truth  and 
honor  was  keen.  In  the  course  of  the  last  ses 
sion,  a  bill  had  been  introduced  to  change  the 
circuits,  by  which  Judge  Chase  was  assigned  to 
that  of  Pennsylvania,  and  one  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian  members,  John  Smilie,  made  a  speech 
on  February  16,  1803,  in  connection  with  this 
bill.  In  order  to  explain  why  Mr.  Chase  should 
be  put  on  some  other  circuit,  where  he  would 
not  be  obnoxious  to  the  bar  and  the  people,  he 
recalled  the  well-known  stories  of  Chase's  arbi 
trary  conduct  at  the  trial  of  Fries  in  April, 
1800.  These  remarks  were  of  so  little  impor 
tance  in  Mr.  Smilie's  mind  that  he  put  no 
weight  upon  them  except  for  the  passing  object 
they  were  meant  to  serve.  The  idea  of  im 
peachment  did  not  enter  his  head. 

There  was,  therefore,  a  certain  grimace  of 
fun  in  the  solemnity  with  which  Randolph  now 
rose  and  said  that  Mr.  Smilie's  remarks  on  that 
occasion  and  the  facts  stated  by  him  were  of 
such  a  nature  as  the  House  was  bound  to 
notice.  "  But  the  lateness  of  the  session  (for 
we  had,  if  I  mistake  not,  scarce  a  fortnight  re 
maining)  precluding  all  possibility  of  bringing 


100  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  subject  to  any  efficient  result,  I  did  not  then 
think  proper  to  take  any  steps  in  the  business. 
Finding  my  attention,  however,  thus  drawn  to 
a  consideration  of  the  character  of  the  officer 
in  question,  I  made  it  my  business,  considering 
it  my  duty  as  well  to  myself  as  to  those  whom 
I  represent,  to  investigate  the  charges  then 
made,  and  the  official  character  of  the  judge  in 
general." 

Mr.  Smilie  was  a  very  respectable  but  not 
very  weighty  member  of  the  House,  and  this 
sudden  elevation  to  the  rank  of  public  accuser, 
which  Mr.  Jefferson,  if  any  one,  could  alone  fill 
with  sufficient  authority,  was  a  stroke  of  Ran 
dolph's  wit,  characteristic  of  the  man.  As  for 
the  whole  statement  with  which  Randolph  intro 
duced  his  motion,  it  is  curious  chiefly  because  it 
is,  to  say  the  least,  inconsistent  with  the  facts. 
Mr.  Smilie's  speech  had  no  more  than  the  ora 
tion  of  Cicero  against  Clodius  to  do  with  Ran 
dolph's  sudden  zeal.  Smilie's  speech  was  made 
on  February  16,  1803  ;  Chase's  address  to  the 
grand  jury  at  Baltimore  was  made  nearly  three 
months  afterwards,  on  May  2,  1803 ;  and  it  was 
only  then  that  the  idea  of  impeachment  was 
suggested.  Yet  this  invocation  of  Smilie  in 
place  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  less  amusing  than 
the  coolness  with  which  the  speaker  required 
the  House  to  believe  that  his  only  knowledge 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  101 

of  Judge  Chase's  conduct  at  the  trial  of  Fries 
was  derived  from  a  few  remarks  made  in  Con 
gress  three  years  after  the  offence.  The  trial  of 
Fries  bad  taken  place  in  Philadelphia,  in  April, 
1800,  within  twenty  rods  of  the  building  where 
Randolph  was  then  sitting  as  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  and  excited  great  attention,  especially 
among  the  members,  many  of  whom  were  pres 
ent  at  it ;  Mr.  Dallas,  the  most  prominent  re 
publican  lawyer  in  the  State,  closely  connected 
with  all  the  leaders  of  his  party,  acted  as  coun 
sel  for  Fries,  and  threw  up  his  brief  on  account 
of  the  judge's  conduct ;  William  Lewis,  one  of 
the  best  lawyers  Pennsylvania  ever  had,  and  a 
federalist  by  previous  tastes,  was  also  in  the 
case  and  guided  the  course  of  Dallas :  yet,  in 
spite  of  this  notoriety,  and  the  dissensions  aft 
erwards  caused  by  President  Adams's  pardon 
of  Fries,  Randolph  still  asserted  that  the  sub 
ject  was  new  to  him,  when  Mr.  Smilie,  in 
February,  1803,  made  his  passing  allusion  to 
it.  "  It  is  true  that  the  deliberations  of  Con 
gress  were  then  held  in  Philadelphia,  the  scene 
of  this  alleged  iniquity,  but,  with  other  mem 
bers,  I  was  employed  in  discharging  my  du 
ties  to  my  constituents,  not  in  witnessing  in 
any  court  the  triumph  of  my  principles.  I 
could  not  have  been  so  employed."  Even  if 
*;his  were  true,  did  his  ignorance  excuse  the  in- 


102  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

action  of  his  whole  party  ?  Or  would  his  ef 
frontery  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that  he  and  his 
friends  had  never  heard  of  Callender's  trial  at 
Richmond,  which  was  to  constitute  other  counts 
in  the  indictment  ? 

Mr.  Smilie,  thus  put  forward  as  official  ac 
cuser,  told  his  story  over  again.  Without  other 
evidence,  after  a  long  debate,  the  inquiry  was 
ordered,  and  Randolph,  with  his  friend  Nich 
olson,  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  committee. 
On  March  26, 1804,  they  reported  seven  arti 
cles  of  impeachment :  the  first  and  second 
covering  the  case  of  Fries ;  the  third,  fourth, 
and  fifth  that  of  Callender ;  the  sixth  that  of 
Judge  Chase's  refusal  to  discharge  the  grand 
jury  at  Newcastle  in  June,  1800,  until  they 
should  have  indicted  a  Delaware  printer ;  and, 
the  seventh  embracing  that  charge  to  the  grand 
jury  at  Baltimore  in  May,  1803,  which  had 
stirred  up  President  Jefferson  to  set  the  whole 
movement  afoot.  With  this  the  session  ended, 
and  the  trial  went  over  to  the  next  year. 

The  Yazoo  claims  came  before  the  House  in 
the  regular  course  of  business.  The  story  of 
these  claims  is  long  and  complicated,  but  it  is  so 
closely  entwined  with  the  thread  of  Randolph's 
life  that  to  omit  or  slur  it  would  be  to  sever 
the  connection  of  events,  and  to  miss  one  of  the 
decisive  moments  of  his  career. 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  103 

The  rescinding  act,  already  mentioned  as 
passed  by  the  State  of  Georgia  in  the  year  1796 
at  the  time  when  Randolph  was  visiting  his 
friend  Bryan,  did  not  end  the  matter  of  the  Ya- 
zoo  grants,  and  the  very  pains  taken  to  fortify 
that  act  by  incorporating  it  in  the  state  Consti 
tution  showed  doubt  as  to  its  legality.  The 
companies  had,  in  fact,  paid  their  money,  ob 
tained  their  grants,  and  sold  considerable  por 
tions  of  the  land  to  private  individuals  through 
out  the  Union ;  and  these  persons,  in  their  turn, 
wherever  there  was  money  to  be  made  by  it, 
had  transferred  the  property  to  others.  A  wild 
speculation  followed  involving  some  two  mil 
lion  dollars  in  Massachusetts  alone.  Were  the 
companies  and  these  third  parties  innocent 
purchasers  ?  Were  they,  or  any  of  them,  igno 
rant  that  the  title  of  Georgia  to  the  lands  in 
question  was  doubtful,  that  the  grants  had  been 
obtained  by  corruption,  and  that  the  State  of 
Georgia  would  certainly  revoke  them?  The 
only  evidence  that  the  purchasers  knew  their 
risk  was  that  the  companies  in  all  cases  de 
clined  to  give  a  warranty  as  against  any  defect 
in  their  title  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 

When  Georgia  rescinded  and  expunged  the 
act  of  1795,  a  certain  number  of  the  purchasers 
surrendered  their  titles  and  received  back  their 
money.  The  United  States  government  next 


104  *  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

intervened  as  protector  of  the  Indians,  who 
actually  owned  and  occupied  the  land ;  and  at 
length,  in  1802,  Mr.  Jefferson  succeeded  in  ob 
taining  from  Georgia  the  cession  of  such  rights 
as  she  had  over  all  that  vast  territory  which 
now  makes  the  States  of  Alabama  and  Mis 
sissippi.  The  purchasers  under  the  Yazoo 
grants  who  still  clung  to  their  titles  gave  due 
notice  of  their  claims,  and  the  law  which  au 
thorized  the  treaty  of  cession  provided  for 
a  compromise  with  these  claimants.  The 
Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Madison,  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Gallatin,  and  the 
Attorney-General,  Mr.  Levi  Lincoln,  commis 
sioners  for  arranging  the  terms  of  settlement, 
reported,  on  February,  14,  1803,  that  although 
in  their  opinion  the  title  of  the  claimants 
could  not  be  supported,  yet  they  believed  that 
"  the  interest  of  the  United  States,  the  tran 
quillity  of  those  who  may  hereafter  inhabit 
that  country,  and  various  equitable  considera 
tions  which  may  be  urged  in  favor  of  most  of 
the  present  claimants  "  rendered  it  expedient 
to  enter  into  a  compromise  on  reasonable  terms. 
They  proposed,  therefore,  that  five  million 
acres  be  set  aside,  within  which,  under  certain 
restrictions,  the  claimants  might  locate  the 
quantity  of  land  allotted  to  them,  or  from  the 
sale  of  which  they  were  to  receive  certificates 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  105 

for  their  proportion  of  the  proceeds,  something 
like  one  sixth  or  one  eighth  of  their  claim. 

Thus  the  matter  now  stood,  and  it  should  be 
mentioned,  by  way  of  parenthesis,  that  when, 
in  1810,  the  subject  came  before  the  Supreme 
Court,  in  the  case  of  Fletcher  against  Peck, 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  delivered  the  opinion  of 
the  court  that  the  legislature  of  Georgia  had, 
by  its  act  of  1795  and  its  grants  of  land,  exe 
cuted  a  contract  with  the  claimants  ;  that  the 
rescinding  act  of  1796  impaired  the  obligation 
of  that  contract,  and  was  therefore  repugnant 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  that 
it  could  not  devest  the  rights  acquired  under 
the  contract ;  and  'that  the  court  would  not 
enter  into  an  inquiry  respecting  the  corruption 
of  a  sovereign  State. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  any  one  who  in 
tended  to  resist  the  Yazoo  claims  had  a  diffi 
cult  task  on  his  hands.  The  President,  Mr. 
Madison,  Mr.  Gallatin,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  were 
against  him  ;  several  acts  of  Congress  stood 
in  his  way ;  the  Supreme  Court  was  behind 
him,  ready  to  trip  him  up ;  a  very  large  num 
ber  of  most  respectable  citizens  were  petition 
ers  for  the  settlement.  The  compromise  sug 
gested  would  cost  nothing  to  Georgia,  for  she 
had  given  the  lands  to  the  United  States,  and 
would  cost  nothing  to  the  United  States,  for 


106  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

they  held  the  lands  as  a  gift  from  Georgia.  A 
refusal  to  compromise  would  throw  the  whole 
matter  into  the  courts,  with  the  result  of  retard 
ing  settlement,  multiplying  expenses,  and  prob 
ably  getting  in  the  end  an  adverse  decision. 
It  would  create  serious  political  ill-feeling  in 
the  party,  and  on  the  other  hand,  what  possible 
object  could  be  gained  by  it  ? 

Randolph  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  On 
February  20,  1804,  he  opened  his  attack  on 
the  commissioners'  report  by  moving  a  string 
of  resolutions :  first,  that  the  Georgia  legisla 
ture  had  not  the  power  of  alienating  territory 
"  but  in  a  rightful  manner  and  for  the  public 
good;"  second,  that  it  is  "  the  inalienable 
right  of  a  people  "  to  abrogate  an  act  passed 
with  bad  motives,  to  the  public  detriment ;  the 
third  and  fourth  recited  the  circumstances  of 
the  case ;  the  next  affirmed  the  right  of  a  legis 
lature  to  repeal  the  act  of  a  preceding  legisla 
ture,  "  provided  such  repeal  be  not  forbidden  by 
the  Constitution  of  such  State,  or  of  the  United 
States ;  "  the  sixth  affirmed  that  the  rescind 
ing  act  of  Georgia  "  was  forbidden  neither  by 
the  Constitution  of  that  State,  nor  by  that  of 
the  United  States  ;  "  the  seventh  declared  that 
the  claims  had  not  been  recognized  either  in 
the  cession  by  Georgia,  or  in  any  act  of  the 
federal  government ;  and  the  last  forbade  any 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  107 

part  of   the   reserved  five  million  acres  to  be 
used  in  satisfying  the  claims. 

These  resolutions  covered  the  whole  ground ; 
they  swept  statements  of  fact,  principles  of  law, 
theories  of  the  Constitution,  considerations  of 
equity,  like  a  flock  of  sheep  into  one  fold  to  be 
sheared.  Randolph,  too,  was  in  deadly  earnest, 
and  in  his  most  domineering  temper.  When  he 
saw  that  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  showed 
signs  of  evading  a  vote  on  his  resolutions,  he 
stood  over  them  like  an  Egyptian  task-master, 
and  cracked  his  whip  as  though  they  were  his 
own  negroes.  "  No  course  that  can  be  pursued 
shall  prevent  me  from  bringing  out  the  sense 
of  the  House.  Whether  the  question  on  these 
resolutions  shall  be  attempted  to  be  got  rid  of 
by  the  previous  question,  or  by  a  postpone 
ment,  I  will  have  the  sense  of  the  House  ex 
pressed  to  the  public  ;  for  this  is  one  of  the 
cases  which,  once  being  engaged  in,  I  can  never 
desert  or  relinquish  till  I  shall  have  exercised 
every  energy  of  mind  and  faculty  of  body  I 
possess  in  refuting  so  nefarious  a  project."  He 
was  warmly  supported,  and  as  warmly  opposed. 
"  Persons  of  every  political  description,"  said 
he, "  are  marshalled  in  support  of  these  claims. 
We  have  had  to  contend  against  the  bear  of  the 
aictic  and  the  lion  of  the  torrid  zone."  Mat 
thew  Lyon,  once  a  martyr  to  the  sedition  law, 


108  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  man  most  famous  as  having  spit  in  Roger 
Gris wold's  face  and  rolled  with  him  on  the 
floor  of  the  House,  was  in  fact  a  supporter  of 
the  compromise ;  and  being  a  man  of  strong 
sense  and  courage,  did  not  shrink  from  Ran 
dolph's  whip.  He  made  a  sensible  speech 
in  reply  to  this  challenge,  keeping  his  temper 
on  this  occasion  at  least.  At  length,  after  two 
days'  debate,  a  vote  was  reached,  not  on  the 
question  of  adopting,  but  of  postponing,  the 
resolutions.  On  the  first  Randolph  defeated 
his  opponents  by  the  narrowest  possible  ma 
jority,  52  to  51.  On  all  the  others  he  was 
beaten  by  majorities  varying  from  2  to  7,  and 
after  this  postponement  of  his  other  resolutions 
he  himself  acquiesced  in  abandoning  the  first. 
The  object  he  had  in  view  was  gained  ;  he  had 
forced  the  House  to  delay  legislation  for  an 
other  year. 

If,  now,  the  Yazoo  affair  be  considered  with 
out  prejudice  or  feeling,  it  must  be  acknowl 
edged  to  involve  a  serious  doubt.  That  Ran 
dolph  was  right  need  not  be  argued  ;  that  he 
was  wholly  in  the  wrong  is  not  to  be  lightly 
admitted.  The  people  of  Georgia  believed 
themselves  betrayed  by  their  agents,  who  had, 
in  their  name,  entered  into  a  contract  against 
public  interest,  induced  thereto  by  corrupt 
motives.  Were  the  people  to  be  forever  bound 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  109 

by  the  corrupt  and  dangerous  bargain  of  their 
representatives  ? 

They  had  instantly,  publicly,  violently  dis 
avowed  those  agents  and  repudiated  their  act, 
calling  upon  all  the  parties  who  had  meanwhile 
paid  value  for  lands,  under  the  obnoxious 
grants,  to  receive  back  their  money  and  sur 
render  their  titles.  What  more  could  they 
have  done  ?  What  more  should  they  be  re 
quired  to  do  ? 

In  1796,  and  even  in  1804,  the  law  was  not 
yet  decided.  The  case  of  Fletcher  against 
Peck,  that  of  Terrett  against  Taylor,  and  the 
still  more  famous  Dartmouth  College  case,  lay 
in  the  breast  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  waiting 
till  Mr.  Jefferson's  day  should  be  over.  Yet, 
even  now,  with  all  the  weight  of  those  decisions 
and  many  more,  it  is  hard  for  laymen  to  sur 
render  their  judgment  on  this  subject.  Were 
a  state  legislature  to-day  bribed  by  a  great 
railroad  company  to  confer  a  grant  of  exclusive 
privileges,  fatal  to  the  public  interests,  for  a 
nominal  consideration,  it  would  be  dangerous 
to  the  public  safety  to  affirm  that  the  people 
could  never  free  themselves  from  this  servitude. 
To  overcome  the  difficulty  by  resorting  to  some 
theory  like  that  of  eminent  domain  is  merely 
John  Randolph's  proposition  under  another 
form ;  it  is  state  sovereignty,  to  which  we  must 


110  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

come  at  last.  Was  it  not  simpler  to  assume  at 
once  an  implied  right,  in  every  grant,  to  alter  or 
amend  it,  if  contrary  to  public  interest?  Was 
it  politically  safe,  even  though  legally  correct, 
to  make  this  hazardous  experiment  of  tying 
the  limbs  of  sovereignty  with  the  thin  threads 
of  judge-made  law  ? 

Randolph's  resolutions  turned  on  state  sov 
ereignty,  but  when  he  came  to  debate  he  used 
a  weapon  more  effective  for  the  moment,  be 
cause  states'  rights  sound  less  persuasively  in 
the  ears  of  the  party  in  power  than  in  those  of 
the  opposition.  He  denounced  the  Yazoo  set 
tlement  as  a  corrupt  job,  to  be  forced  through 
Congress  by  an  interested  lobby,  and  declared, 
doubtless  with  perfect  honesty,  that  the  purity 
of  government  was  gone  forever  if  this  gross 
outrage  on  decency  were  to  succeed.  In  tak 
ing  this  position,  Randolph  was  consistent ;  he 
stood  on  solid  party  ground,  opposing  a  combi 
nation  of  northern  democrats,  federalists,  and 
executive  influence,  which  he  thought  corrupt. 
To  do  this  required  no  little  courage,  and  if 
there  were  selfish  or  personal  motives  behind 
his  action  they  are  not  to  be  seen.  If  he 
struck  at  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison,  he 
struck  also  at  Mr.  Gallatin,  his  strongest  friend; 
and  if  he  made  enemies  of  the  northern  dem 
ocrats,  it  was  because  he  knew  the  weakness 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  Ill 

of  their  party  principles.  Mean  ambition  does 
not  work  in  such  paths ;  only  a  classical,  over- 
towering  love  of  rule  thus  ventures  to  defy  the 
opinion  of  others.  Had  Randolph  wanted  of 
fice  he  would,  like  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Mad 
ison,  have  conciliated  the  northern  democrats 
and  smoothed  the  processes  of  corruption;  he 
would  have  shut  his  eyes  to  what  was  going 
on  in  the  lobby,  well  aware  that  his  blind  war 
against  his  party  must  do  more  harm  than  good. 
Office  he  did  not  want,  and  he  willingly  flung 
his  chances  away,  but  only  to  grasp  at  the 
higher,  moral  authority  of  a  popular  tribune. 
He  believed  that  the  administration,  backed  by 
northern  democrats,  was  forgetting  the  princi 
ples  on  which  it  had  claimed  and  won  confi 
dence  and  power;  he  foresaw  an  over-powerful 
Executive  purchasing  influence  by  jobs  and 
patronage,  the  experience  of  all  past  ages,  and 
falling  at  last  into  the  hands  of  a  Caesar  or  a 
Bonaparte.  In  his  eyes,  all  the  easy  roads  of 
doubtful  virtue  led  to  this.  Debt,  taxes,  ar 
mies,  navies,  and  offices  of  every  sort ;  executive 
intermeddling,  legislative  jobs,  and  all  expen 
diture  of  any  kind  that  fed  an  interest;  all 
assumptions  of  power,  all  concessions  to  influ 
ential  fraud,  were  mere  steps  to  Roman  degra 
dation.  Madman  he  may  have  been,  but  his 
madness  had  a  strong  element  of  reason  and 


112  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

truth.  He  told  his  party  that  they  were  going 
wrong;  the  time  was  near  at  hand  when  he 
was  to  tell  them  that  he  could  no  longer  share 
their  offices  and  honors. 

Thus  far,  although  touching  the  extreme  limit 
of  propriety  in  the  manner  of  his  opposition, 
he  had  not  passed  beyond  bounds,  and,  what 
told  most  in  his  favor,  he  won  his  single-handed 
battle  ;  the  path  of  compromise  was  blocked, 
and  he  himself  was  now  a  great  political  power, 
for  never  before  had  any  man,  living  or  dead, 
fought  such  a  fight  in  Congress,  and  won  it. 
Feared  by  the  federalists  for  having  by  an 
arbitrary  act,  avowedly  his  own,  impeached 
Judge  Chase  for  offences  long  ago  tacitly  con 
doned,  he  was  still  more  formidable  to  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  the  Cabinet.  With  such  dicta 
torial  power  over  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  what  might  he  not  do  should  he  oppose  a 
vital  measure  of  the  administration,  as  he  had 
resisted  the  Yazoo  compromise  ?  Even  at  this 
early  moment,  shrewd  observers  might  cal 
culate  the  orbit  of  this  political  comet,  and 
no  extraordinary  knowledge  of  mathematics 
was  needed  to  show  them  where  to  look  for  a 
coming  collision. 

The  session,  however,  was  now  at  an  end, 
and  Randolph  buried  himself  again  at  Bizarre. 
As  a  curiosity,  the  following  extracts  from  a 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  113 

letter  written  by  him  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson, 
on  August  27,  1804,  are  worth  reading.  The 
famous  duel  between  Aaron  Burr  and  Al 
exander  Hamilton  had  just  taken  place,  and 
Burr's  political  ruin,  caused  chiefly  by  the  en 
mity  of  De  Witt  Clinton  and  by  the  bitter  per 
secution  of  De  Witt  Clinton's  newspaper,  the 
"  American  Citizen,"  edited  by  an  Englishman 
named  Cheetham,  was  the  excitement  of  the 
day. 

RANDOLPH   TO   NICHOLSON. 

"  I  have  not  seen,  although  I  have  heard,  of  the 
attack  which  you  mention,  upon  Gallatin,  in  the 
*  Aurora.'  That  paper  is  so  long  in  reaching  me, 
and,  moreover,  is  so  stuffed  with  city,  or  rather  sub 
urb,  politics,  that  I  seldom  look  at  it.  Indeed,  I 
have  taken  a  disgust  at  newspapers  ever  since  the 
deception  and  disappointment  which  I  felt  in  the  case 
of  Langdon's  election.  If  the  '  Boston  Chronicle/ 
published  almost  upon  the  spot,  should  so  grossly  mis 
represent  a  plain  matter  of  fact,  so  easily  ascertained, 
what  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  a  newspaper  state 
ment  ?  My  incredulity  refused  to  credit  Hamilton's 
death,  which  I  thought  it  very  likely  would  be  contra 
dicted  by  the  next  mail ;  and,  until  I  saw  Morris's 
wretched  attempt  at  oratory,  regarded  it  merely  as  a 
matter  of  speculation.  You  ask  my  opinion  on  that 
subject;  it  differs  but  little,  I  believe,  from  your 
own.  I  feel  for  Hamilton's  immediate  connections 
real  concern ;  for  himself,  nothing ;  for  his  party  and 


114  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

those  soi-disant  republicans  who  have  been  shedding 
crocodile  tears  over  him,  contempt.  The  first  are 
justly  punished  for  descending  to  use  Burr  as  a  tool 
to  divide  their  opponents  ;  the  last  are  hypocrites,  who 
deify  Hamilton  merely  that  they  may  offer  up  their 
enemy  on  his  altars.  If  Burr  had  riot  fallen,  like  Lu 
cifer,  never  to  rise  again,  the  unprincipled  persecution 
of  Cheetham  might  do  him  service.  (By  the  way,  I 
wonder  if  Dennie  adverted  to  Cheetham's  patronage 
of  General  Hamilton's  memory,  when  he  said  that, 
*  except  the  imported  scoundrel,'  etc.,  etc.,  all  bewailed 
his  loss.)  As  it  is,  those  publications  are  calculated  to 
engage  for  him  the  pity  even  of  those  who  must  deny 
their  esteem.  The  people,  who  ultimately  never  fail 
to  make  a  proper  decision,  abhor  persecution,  and 
while  they  justly  refuse  their  confidence  to  Mr.  Burr, 
they  will  detest  his  oppressors.  They  cannot,  they 
will  not,  grope  in  the  vile  mire  of  seaport  politics,  not 
less  vitiated  than  their  atmosphere.  Burr's  is  indeed 
an  irreparable  defeat.  He  is  cut  off  from  all  hope 
of  a  retreat  among  the  federalists,  not  so  much  be 
cause  he  has  overthrown  their  idol  as  because  he 
cannot  answer  their  purpose.  If  his  influence  were 
sufficient  to  divide  us,  Otis  and  Morris  would  to-mor 
row,  ere  those  shoes  were  old  in  which  they  followed 
Hamilton  to  the  grave,  go  to  the  hustings  and  vote 
for  Burr  ;  and  if  his  character  had  no  other  stain 
upon  it  than  the  blood  of  Hamilton,  he  should  have 
mine,  for  any  secondary  office.  I  admire  his  letters, 
particularly  that  signed  by  Van  Ness,  and  think  his 
whole  conduct  in  that  affair  does  him  honor.  How 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  115 

much  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  nice  a  perception 
of  right  and  wrong,  so  delicate  a  sense  of  propri 
ety,  as  he  there  exhibits  should  have  had  such  little 
influence  on  his  general  conduct !  In  his  correspon 
dence  with  Hamilton,  how  visible  is  his  ascendency 
over  him,  and  how  sensible  does  the  latter  appear 
of  it !  There  is  an  apparent  consciousness  of  some 
inferiority  to  his  enemy  displayed  by  Hamilton 
throughout  that  transaction,  and  from  a  previous 
sight  of  their  letters  I  could  have  inferred  the  issue 
of  the  contest.  On  one  side  there  is  labored  obscu 
rity,  much  equivocation,  and  many  attempts  at  eva 
sion,  not  unmixed  with  a  little  blustering;  on  the 
other,  an  unshaken  adherence  to  his  object  and  an 
undeviating  pursuit  of  it,  not  to  be  eluded  or  baffled. 
It  reminded  me  of  a  sinking  fox  pressed  by  a  vigor 
ous  old  hound,  where  no  shift  is  permitted  to  avail 
him.  But  perhaps  you  think  me  inclined  to  do  Burr 
more  than  justice.  I  assure  you,  however,  that 
when  I  first  saw  the  correspondence,  and  before  my 
feelings  were  at  all  excited  for  the  man,  as  they  have 
been  in  some  degree  by  the  savage  yell  which  has 
been  raised  against  him,  I  applauded  the  spirit  and 
admired  the  style  of  his  compositions.  They  are  the 
first  proof  which  I  ever  saw  of  his  ability." 

One  more  letter  is  worth  a  little  attention. 
The  Louisiana  business  was  rapidly  taking  a  new 
phase.  The  Spanish  minister  at  Washington, 
the  Marquis  of  Casa  Yrujo,  irritated  by  the 
cavalier  manner  in  which  his  country  had  been 


116  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

treated,  made  himself  very  disagreeable  to  Mr. 
Madison,  and  in  return  was  charged  by  William 
Jackson,  editor  of  the  "  Political  Register,"  of 
Philadelphia,  with  an  attempt  to  corrupt  the 
press  by  Spanish  gold.  Mr.  Charles  Pinckney 
of  South  Carolina,  our  minister  at  Madrid,  had, 
without  the  authority  of  government,  under 
taken  to  break  off  his  relations  with  the  gov 
ernment  of  Spain.  W.  C.  C.  Claiborne,  the  new 
Governor  of  Louisiana,  had  managed  to  irritate 
New  Orleans.  The  British  frigates  Cambrian 
and  Leander  were  searching  every  vessel  that 
entered  or  left  the  harbor  of  New  York,  and 
seizing  men  and  ships  without  mercy.  It  is 
well  to  know  what  Randolph,  in  his  private 
talk,  had  to  say  about  matters  so  loudly  dis 
cussed  by  him  at  a  later  time. 

On  October  14,  1804,  he  wrote  from  Bizarre 
to  the  Secretary  .of  the  Treasury,  Albert  Gal- 
latin  :  — 

RANDOLPH    TO    GALLATIN. 

"  On  my  return  from  Fredericksburg,  after  a  rac 
ing  campaign,  I  was  very  agreeably  accosted  by  your 
truly  welcome  letter,  to  thank  you  for  which,  and  not 
because  I  have  anything,  stable  news  excepted,  to 
communicate,  I  now  take  up  the  pen.  It  is  some 
satisfaction  to  me,  who  have  been  pestered  with  in 
quiries  that  I  could  not  answer  on  the  subject  of 
public  affairs,  to  find  that  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  117 

chequer  and  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  is  in  as  com 
fortable  a  state  of  ignorance  as  myself.  Pope  says  of 
governments,  that  is  best  which  is  best  administered. 
What  idea,  then,  could  he  have  of  a  government 
which  was  not  administered  at  all  ?  The  longer  I 
live,  the  more  do  I  incline  to  somebody's  opinion 
that  there  is  in  the  affairs  of  this  world  a  mechanism 
of  which  the  very  agents  themselves  are  ignorant, 
and  which,  of  course,  they  can  neither  calculate  nor 
control.  As  much  free  will  as  you  please  in  every 
thing  else,  but  in  politics  I  must  ever  be  a  necessita 
rian.  And  this  comfortable  doctrine  saves  me  a  deal 
of  trouble  and  many  a  twinge  of  conscience  for  my 
heedless  ignorance.  I  therefore  leave  Major  Jackson 
and  his  Ex.  of  Casa  Yrujo  to  give  each  other  the  lie 
in  Anglo-American  or  Castilian  fashions,  just  as  it 
suits  them,  and  when  people  resort  to  me  for  intelli 
gence,  instead  of  playing  the  owl  and  putting  on  a  face 
of  solemn  nonsense,  I  very  fairly  tell  them,  with  per 
fect  nonchalance,  that  I  know  nothing  of  the  matter, 
—  from  which,  if  they  have  any  discernment,  they 
may  infer  that  I  care  as  little  about  it,  —  and  then 
change  the  subject  as  quickly  as  I  can  to  horses,  dogs, 
the  plough,  or  some  other  upon  which  I  feel  myself 
competent  to  converse.  In  short,  I  like  originality 
too  well  to  be  a  second-hand  politician  when  I  can 
help  it.  It  is  enough  to  live  upon  the  broken  vict 
uals  and  be  tricked  out  in  the  cast-off  finery  of  you 
first-rate  statesmen  all  the  winter.  When  I  cross  the 
Potomac  I  leave  behind  me  all  the  scraps,  shreds,  and 
patches  of  politics  which  I  collect  during  the  session, 


118  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

and  put  on  the  plain  homespun,  or,  as  we  say,  the 
1  Virginia  cloth/  of  a  planter,  which  is  clean,  whole, 
and  comfortable,  even  if  it  be  homely.  Neverthe 
less,  I  have  patriotism  enough  left  to  congratulate 
you  on  the  fullness  of  the  public  purse,  and  cannot 
help  wishing  that  its  situation  could  be  concealed 
from  our  Sangrados  in  politics,  with  whom  depletion 
is  the  order  of  the  day.  On  the  subject  of  a  navy,  you 
know  my  opinion  concurs  with  yours.  I  really  feel 
ashamed  for  my  country,  that  whilst  she  is  hector 
ing  before  the  petty  corsairs  of  the  coast  of  Barbary, 
she  should  truckle  to  the  great  pirate  of  the  Ger 
man  Ocean  ;  and  I  would  freely  vote  a  naval  force 
that  should  blow  the  Cambrian  and  Leander  out  of 
water.  Indeed,  I  wish  Barren's  squadron  had  been 
employed  on  that  service.  I  am  perfectly  aware 
of  the  importance  of  peace  to  us,  particularly  with 
Great  Britain,  but  I  know  it  to  be  equally  necessary 
to  her ;  and  in  short,  if  we  have  any  honor  as  a  na 
tion  to  lose,  which  is  problematical,  I  am  unwilling 
to  surrender  it. 

"  On  the  subject  of  Louisiana  you  are  also  ap 
prised  that  my  sentiments  coincide  with  your  own, 
and  it  is  principally  because  of  that  coincidence  that 
I  rely  upon  their  correctness.  But  as  we  have  the 
misfortune  to  differ  from  that  great  political  luminary, 
Mr.  Matthew  Lyon,  on  this  as  well  as  on  most  other 
points,  I  doubt  whether  we  shall  <not  be  overpowered. 
If  Spain  be  *  fallen  from  her  old  Castilian  faith, 
candor,  and  dignity?  it  must  be  allowed  that  we 
have  been  judicious  in  our  choice  of  a  minister  to 


VAULTING  AMBITION,  119 

negotiate  with  her  ;  and  Louisiana,  it  being  presum 
able,  partaking  something  of  the  character  which  dis 
tinguished  her  late  sovereign  when  she  acquired  that 
territory,  the  selection  of  a  pompous  nothing  for  a 
Governor,  will  be  admitted  to  have  been  happy.  At 
least,  if  the  appointment  be  not  defensible  on  that 
principle,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  discover  any  other  tenable 
point.  In  answer  to  your  question  I  would  advise 
the  printing  of  —  thousand  copies  of  Tom  Paine's 
answer  to  their  remonstrance,  and  transmitting  them 
by  as  many  thousand  troops,  who  can  speak  a  lan 
guage  perfectly  intelligible  to  the  people  of  Louisi 
ana,  whatever  that  of  their  Governor  may  be.  It  is, 
to  be  sure,  a  little  awkward,  except  in  addresses 
and  answers,  where  each  party  is  previously  well  ap 
prised  of  what  the  other  has  to  say,  that  whilst  the 
eyes  and  ears  of  the  admiring  Louisianians  are  filled 
with  the  majestic  person  and  sonorous  periods  of  their 
chief  magistrate,  their  understandings  should  be  ut 
terly  vacant.  If,  however,  they  were  aware  that,  even 
if  they  understood  English,  it  might  be  no  better, 
they  would  perhaps  be  more  reconciled  to  their  situ 
ation.  You  really  must  send  something  better  than 
this  mere  ape  of  greatness  to  these  Hispano-Gaulo. 
He  would  make  a  portly  figure  delivering  to  'my 
lords  and  gentlemen '  a  speech  which  Pitt  had  previ 
ously  taught  him  ;  we  want  an  automaton,  and  a  pup 
pet  will  not  supply  his  place." 

This  letter,  which  otherwise  contains  noth 
ing    remarkable    except  perhaps   its   egotism, 


120  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

might  equally  well  have  been  written  by  a  fed 
eralist  in  opposition  to  government.  The  writer 
shows  irritation  at  his  want  of  influence  in  pub 
lic  affairs ;  he  will  vote  a  navy  to  blow  Brit 
ish  ships  out  of  water ;  he  is  ready  to  face  a 
war  rather  than  surrender  the  national  honor; 
he  wishes  to  send  some  thousands  of  troops  to 
overawe  his  fellow  citizens  at  New  Orleans ; 
and  he  has  none  but  words  of  contempt  for  all 
the  President's  appointments.  What  else  could 
a  federalist  have  said,  and  how  could  he  have 
shown  less  respect  for  the  sentiments  of  1800  ? 
Randolph,  however,  was  a  fault-finder  by  pro 
fession  ;  what  he  wrote  in  this  jocular  way  is 
perhaps  not  to  be  taken  as  serious.  Eccentric, 
as  his  friends  acknowledged,  it  was  not  always 
easy  to  tie  him  down  to  one  opinion  ;  nor  was 
it  even  quite  certain  that  he  himself  remem 
bered  .his  own  opinions  from  one  month  to  an 
other.  Yet  in  regard  to  the  most  notable  idea 
expressed  in  this  letter,  he  was  so  far  consistent 
as  to  repeat  it  in  a  still  more  emphatic  form 
during  the  next  session  of  Congress  ;  for  when, 
on  December  6,  1804,  the  bill  for  "  the  more 
effectual  preservation  of  peace  in  the  ports  and 
harbors  of  the  United  States  "  came  before  the 
House,  he  delivered  a  violent  harangue  on  the 
subject : — 

"  I  would  be  glad  to  see  a  remedy  more  complete 


VAULTING  AMBITION.  121 

than  the  one  mentioned  in  this  bill.  ...  I  would 
like  to  see  the  armed  vessels  employed  in  disturbing 
our  peaceable  commerce  blown  out  of  the  water.  I 
wish  to  see  our  American  officers  and  seamen  ly 
ing  yard-arm  and  yard-arm  in  the  attack,  and  the 
question  of  peace  or  war  staked  on  the  issue,  if  the 
conduct  of  such  marauders  were  justified  by  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  nation  to  which  they  belong.  This 
language  may  appear  different  from  what  I  have  con 
stantly  used,  but  our  situation  is  also  different.  Here 
tofore  I  was  not  disposed  to  engage  in  hostilities  for 
the  protection  of  our  navigation,  but  we  then  had  no 
maritime  force.  We  have  since  created  one.  If  we 
had  no  navy,  we  could  not  meet  them  on  the  ocean ; 
but  having  one,  I  would  apply  it  to  the  best  purpose, 
that  of  efficaciously  defending  our  ports  arid  harbors, 
and  would  struggle  till  the  whole  of  our  marine  was 
annihilated,  if  in  the  contest  Britain  should  not  leave 
us  a  single  ship.  Though  we  lost  all,  we  should  not 
lose  our  national  honor ;  though  we  should  not  beat 
her  on  the  ocean,  we  should  save  our  reputation  ;  but 
to  suffer  insult  to  be  added  to  injury  is  indeed  a  deg 
radation  of  national  honor,  and  ought  never  to  be 
borne  with,  let  it  come  from  any  nation  whatever." 

There  was  no  exaggeration  in  the  mild  re 
mark  that  this  language  might  appear  different 
from  that  which  he  had  constantly  used ;  but 
why  and  how  was  the  situation  different  ?  In 
the  name  of  common  truth  and  consistency, 
who  made  the  American  navy?  Who  laid  it 


122  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

up  ?  Who  persisted,  during  the  utmost  perils 
of  our  government,  in  vehement  assertions  that 
a  navy  was  a  mere  invitation  of  insult  ?  Who 
for  years  vomited  fire  and  blood  against  the 
federalist  party  for  trying  to  be  prepared  against 
war  ?  In  the  course  of  American  history  the 
reader  may  meet  with  many  mad  inconsisten 
cies,  but  he  will  never  find  one  more  bewilder 
ing  than  this.  In  Randolph's  later  life  there 
would  have  been  no  loss  for  an  explanation,  but 
in  this  case  he  had  nursed  his  new  patriotism 
for  two  entire  months ;  it  was  no  flash  of  sud 
den  excitement ;  it  was  mere  temper.  He  was 
angry,  and  had  forgotten  his  principles. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

YAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE. 

CONGRESS  met  on  November  5,  1804,  a 
month  earlier  than  usual,  and  Randolph  came 
to  Washington  in  the  temper  which  his  letter 
to  Gallatin  indicates.  He  was  irritable,  ner 
vous,  extravagant,  and  had  doubtless  many  ex 
cuses  for  being  so.  More  jealous  than  ever  of 
executive  influence,  he  seemed  at  last  alive  to 
the  mistakes  he  had  made  in  straining  party 
principles ;  he  began  to  lecture  his  followers 
with  the  pragmatic  air  of  a  pedagogue,  and 
sought  out  occasions  to  worry  them  with  small 
discipline.  As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means  he  reported  against  the  re 
mission  of  duties  on  books  intended  for  the  use 
of  colleges  and  seminaries  of  learning,  and  his 
report  dogmatized  thus :  — 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  a 
grant  of  limited  powers  for  general  ohjects  which 
Congress  had  no  right  to  exceed.  ...  Its  leading 
feature  was  an  abhorrence  of  exclusive  privileges. 

.  .  On  the  privilege  asked  for  ...  we  refer  to  the 


124  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

eighth  section  of  the  first  article,  where  it  is  declared 
that  Congress  shall  have  power  to  levy  and  collect 
taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises ;  but  all  duties, 
imposts,  and  excises  shall  be  uniform  throughout  the 
United  States.  The  impost  shall  be  uniform,  .  .  . 
that  is  to  say  .  .  .  there  shall  not  be  two  measures 
to  mete  with.  If  Congress  undertake  to  exempt  one 
class  of  people  from  the  payment  of  the  impost,  they 
may  exempt  others  also.  .  .  .  Indeed,  it  cannot  be 
seen  where  they  are  to  stop.  .  .  .  Perhaps  it  may 
be  said  that  .  .  .  philosophical  apparatus  is  ex 
empted  from  duty  when  imported  for  the  benefit  of 
seminaries  of  learning,  .  .  .  but  I  believe  that  law 
to  be  an  unconstitutional  law,  as  well  as  some  others 
passed  by  former  Congresses." 

This  was  strict  construction  run  riot;  on 
such  principles  it  would  not  have  been  difficult 
to  prove  that  Congress  could  lay  no  imposts  at 
all,  because,  in  the  sense  contended,  no  possible 
impost  could  be  uniform  ;  one  or  another  class 
of  people  might  always  be  exempt  from  its  bur 
den,  unless  light,  air,  and  water  could  be  made 
dutiable ;  but  granting  that  Randolph  was  cor 
rect,  he  might  at  least  have  consoled  the  peti 
tioners  by  telling  them  that  a  means  of  evad 
ing  the  difficulty  existed ;  that  to  obtain  their 
object  they  need  only  go  to  the  President  and 
invoke  the  treaty-making  power  which  brought 
Louisiana,  all  its  inhabitants  and  all  their 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE  ' CHASE.  125 

property,  real  and  personal,  through  the  cus 
tom  house,  made  them  all  citizens,  and  gave 
them  special  privileges  of  foreign  trade,  with 
out  offence  to  the  Constitution,  or  authority 
from  an  act  of  Congress. 

Two  days  after  thus  teaching  the  House  its 
business,  Randolph,  Nicholson,  Macon,  and  the 
whole  body  of  strict  constructionists  undertook 
to  tell  it  that  Congress  could  not  embank  or 
bridge  the  Potomac,  because  Virginia  and  Mary 
land  had  a  right  of  navigation  there,  although 
navigation  might  even  be  improved  by  the 
change.  These  petty  attempts  to  restrict  a 
power  which  had  just  been  declared  sufficient  to 
subvert,  by  a  mere  treaty,  the  existing  status  of 
the  Union,  were  vexatious  and  irritating.  They 
drove  the  northern  democrats  into  silent  rebel 
lion.  The  House  allowed  Randolph  to  say  what 
he  liked,  but  paid  no  attention  to  his  lectures, 
and  he  harmed  only  his  own  cause.  "  Mere 
metaphysical  subtleties,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson 
openly  before  a  large  company  at  his  own 
table  ;  and  he  added  :  "  they  ought  to  have  no 
weight.'' 

With  Randolph  in  this  state  of  incessant  irri 
tation,  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  excitable 
temper  with  which  he  approached  the  Yazoo 
claim  when,  on  January  29,  1805,  it  made  its 
appearance  before  the  House.  At  his  coolest 


126  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

moments  the  word  Yazoo  was  to  him  what  the 
sight  of  a  bodkin  was  to  Sir  Piercie  Shafton ; 
but  in  his  present  condition  of  mind  the  effect 
was  beyond  all  measure  violent.  He  took  the 
floor,  and  after  speaking  for  a  few  minutes 
with  apparent  self-control  broke  out  into  a 
tirade  such  as  the  House  had  never  yet  heard 
from  him,  or  from  any  other  man:  — 

"  Past  experience  has  shown  that  this  is  one  of 
those  subjects  which  pollution  has  sanctified;  that  the 
hallowed  mysteries  of  corruption  are  not  to  be  pro 
faned  by  the  eye  of  public  curiosity.  No,  sir,  the  or 
gies  of  Yazoo  speculation  are  not  to  be  laid  open  to 
the  public  gaze.  None  but  the  initiated  are  permitted 
to  behold  the  monstrous  sacrifice  of  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation  on  the  altars  of  corruption.  When  this 
abomination  is  to  be  practised,  we  go  into  conclave. 
Do  we  apply  to  the  press,  that  potent  engine,  the 
dread  of  tyrants  and  of  villains,  but  the  shield  of  free 
dom  and  of  worth  ?  No,  sir,  the  press  is  gagged ! 
On  this  subject  we  have  a  virtual  sedition  law,  not 
with  a  specious  title,  but  irresistible  in  its  operation, 
which,  in  the  language  of  a  gentleman  from  Connect 
icut,  goes  directly  to  the  object.  The  demon  of  spec 
ulation  at  one  sweep  has  wrested  from  the  nation 
their  best,  their  only  defence,  and  closed  every  avenue 
of  information.  But  the  day  of  retribution  may  yet 
come.  If  their  rights  are  to  be  bartered  away  and 
their  property  squandered,  the  people  must  not,  they 
shall  not,  be  kept  in  ignorance  by  whom  or  for  whom 
it  is  done." 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  127 

After  much,  more  of  this  wild  denunciation, 
which  should  have  been  stopped  by  the  Speaker 
at  once;  after  imputing  to  the  House  corrupt 
motives  and  "  public  plunder  "  and  "out-of-door 
intrigues"  under  "exact  discipline,"  he  tried  to 
re-state  his  case  and  to  argue  upon  it :  but  his 
arguments  were  as  wild  as  his  invective,  and  he 
always  returned  to  the  easier  task  of  denuncia 
tion.  Gideon  Granger,  the  Postmaster-Gen 
eral,  had  very  improperly  undertaken  to  act  as 
agent  of  the  claimants,  and  Randolph  fell  foul 
of  him  with  tremendous  virulence  :  — 

"  His  gigantic  grasp  embraces  with  one  hand  the 
shores  of  Lake  Erie,  and  stretches  with  the  other  to 
the  bay  of  Mobile.  Millions  of  acres  are  easily  di 
gested  by  such  stomachs  !  The  retail  trade  of  fraud 
and  imposture  yields  too  slow  and  small  a  profit  to 
gratify  their  cupidity.  They  buy  and  sell  corruption 
in  the  gross,  and  a  few  millions,  more  or  less,  is  hardly 
felt  to  the  account.  ...  Is  it  come  to  this  ?  Are 
heads  of  executive  departments  of  the  government  to 
be  brought  into  this  House,  with  all  the  influence 
and  patronage  attached  to  them,  to  extort  from  us 
now  what  was  refused  at  the  last  session  of  Con 
gress?" 

He  felt  it  an  outrage  that  he  should  be 
obliged  to  fight  such  a  battle.  He  raged  like  a 
maniac  because  his  party  had  gone  off  after 
false  leaders,  and  left  him  to  prophesy  de- 


128  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

struction  and  woe  to  the  echoes  of  the  cham 
ber.  A  party  that  had  come  to  power  only 
four  years  ago,  saying  and  believing  that  they 
had  created  for  the  first  time  in  man's  his 
tory  a  system  of  pure  and  democratic  govern 
ment,  under  which  corruption  was  impossible, 
now  forced  their  leader  to  devote  his  most 
passionate  energies  to  the  task  of  convincing 
them  that  the  Postmaster-General,  the  master 
of  executive  patronage,  should  not  be  a  lobbyist 
for  private  claimants  on  the  floor  of  Congress. 
These  methods  of  influencing  legislatures  Ran 
dolph  had  always  charged  on  the  federalists  as 
their  own  dishonest  European  practices,  the 
fruit  of  their  monarchical  theories ;  he  was 
genuinely  tortured  to  find  himself  wrong,  and 
to  see  that  his  own  followers  had  turned  feder 
alist.  He  had  the  courage*  to  tell  them  so :  — 

"What  is  the  spirit  against  which  we  now  struggle 
and  which  we  have  vainly  endeavored  to  stifle  ?  A 
monster  generated  by  fraud,  nursed  in  corruption, 
that  in  grim  silence  awaits  its  prey  !  It  is  the  spirit 
of  federalism,  —  that  spirit  which  considers  the  many 
as  made  only  for  the  few,  which  sees  in  government 
nothing  but  a  job,  which  is  never  so  true  to  itself  as 
when  false  to  the  nation  !  When  I  behold  a  certain 
party  supporting  and  clinging  to  such  a  measure,  al 
most  to  a  man,  I  see  only  men  faithful  to  their  own 
principles ;  pursuing  with  steady  step  and  untired  zeal 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE.  129 

the  uniform  tenor  of  their  political  life.  But  when 
I  see,  associated  with  them,  in  firm  compact,  others 
who  once  rallied  under  the  standard  of  opposite  prin 
ciples,  I  am  filled  with  apprehension  and  concern. 
Of  what  consequence  is  it  that  a  man  smiles  in  your 
face,  holds  out  his  hand,  and  declares  himself  the  ad 
vocate  of  those  political  principles  to  which  you  are 
also  attached,  when  you  see  him  acting  with  your  ad 
versaries  upon  other  principles,  which  the  voice  of 
the  nation  has  put  down,  never  to  rise  again  in  this 
section  of  the  globe  ?  " 

What  Randolph  thus  said  was  to  a  great  ex 
tent  true.  The  republican  party,  when  in  oppo 
sition,  set  up  an  impossible  standard  of  political 
virtue,  and  now  that  they  were  in  power  found 
that  government  could  not  be  carried  on  as 
they  had  pledged  themselves  to  conduct  it. 
Randolph  himself  shared  their  inconsistencies. 
He  had  talked  and  voted  as  his  interests  or 
passions  dictated,  supporting  the  constitution 
ality  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  intriguing  for 
war  with  Spain,  inciting  to  war  with  England, 
governing  by  military  power  the  people  of 
New  Orleans,  without  a  thought  of  the  prece 
dents  he  helped  to  establish;  but  he  had  the 
merit  of  seeing  others'  mistakes  if  not  his  own. 
He  had  the  courage  to  proclaim  the  offences  of 
his  party.  This  it  was  which  gave  him  the 
confidence  and  support  of  friends  and  constitu- 


130  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ents.  They  believed  in  his  honesty  of  purpose, 
and  pardoned  all  else. 

The  debate  went  on  for  several  days  with 
increasing  violence.  Language  unprecedented 
was  used.  Randolph  attacked  Granger  with 
savage  ferocity.  He  found  the  whole  weight 
of  the  administration,  and  especially  the  influ 
ence  of  Mr.  Madison,  thrown  into  the  scale 
against  him,  and  he  struggled  desperately 
against  it.  Beaten  by  five  votes  on  the  divi 
sion,  he  still  carried  his  point  in  preventing 
/.actual  legislation  by  this  Congress,  and  stood 
,  in  the  gap  with  a  courage  fairly  to  be  called 
heroic,  had  it  not  been  to  so  great  an  extent 
the  irrational  outcome  of  an  undisciplined  and 
tyrannical  temper.  A  true  statesman,  with 
some  concession  and  good  management,  might 
perhaps  have  carried  all  his  points,  thus  over 
awing  his  party,  reestablishing  his  favorite 
states'  rights,  and  breaking  in  advance  the 
force  of  Marshall's  law.  Nay,  it  was  not  im 
possible  that  by  dexterity  and  steady  persist 
ence  he  might  shut  up  the  Dartmouth  College 
case  forever  in  gremio  magistratus,  or  drive 
the  Chief  Justice  from  the  bench.  Randolph 
clutched  with  both  hands  at  Marshall's  throat, 
but  to  be  victor  in  such  a  contest  he  needed 
Marshall's  mind. 

The  Yazoo  debate  closed  on  Saturday,  Feb- 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  131 

ruary  2,  and  on  February  9  Randolph  ap 
peared  with  his  brother  managers  before  the 
Senate  to  open  the  impeachment  of  Judge 
Chase.  It  was  the  weightiest  moment  of  his 
public -life;  for  an  instant  he  challenged  a  place 
in  history  beside  the  masters  of  oratory  and 
power.  Where  all  others,  including  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  himself,  shrunk  back,  he  stood  forward, 
while  the  object  of  his  ambition,  if  gained,  as 
sured  him  high  rank  among  the  great  men  of 
his  century. 

The  impeachment  of  Justice  Chase  is  a  land 
mark  in  American  history,  because  it  was  here 
that  the  Jefltersonian  republicans  fought  their 
last  aggressive  battle,  and,  wavering  under  the 
shock  of  defeat,  broke  into  factions  which  slowly 
abandoned  the  field  and  forgot  their  discipline. 
That  such  a  battle  must  one  day  be  fought  for  the 
control  of  the  Judiciary  was  from  the  beginning 
believed  by  most  republicans  who  understood 
their  own  principles.  Without  controlling  the 
Judiciary,  the  people  could  never  govern  them 
selves  in  their  own  way  ;  and  although  they 
might,  over  and  over  again,  in  every  form  of 
law  and  resolution,  both  state  and  national, 
enact  and  proclaim  that  theirs  was  not  a  des 
potic  but  a  restricted  government,  which  had 
no  right  to  exercise  powers  not  delegated  to  it, 
and  over  which  they,  as  States,  had  absolute 


132  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

control,  it  was  none  the  less  certain  that  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  his  associates  would  disre 
gard  their  will,  and  would  impose  upon  them 
his  own.  The  people  were  at  the  mercy  of 
their  creatures.  The  Constitutions  of  England, 
of  Massachusetts,  of  Pennsylvania,  authorized 
the  removal  of  an  obnoxious  judge  on  a  mere 
address  of  the  legislature,  but  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  had  so  fenced  and  fortified 
the  Supreme  Court  that  the  legislature,  the  Ex 
ecutive,  the  people  themselves,  could  exercise 
no  control  over  it.  A  judge  might  make  any 
decision,  violate  any  duty,  trample  on  any  right, 
and  if  he  took  care  to  commit  no  indictable  of 
fence  he  was  safe  in  office  for  life.  On. this  li 
cense  the  Constitution  imposed  only  one  check: 
it  said  that  all  civil  officers  should  be  removed 
from  office  "  on  impeachment  for,  and  conviction 
of,  treason,  bribery,  or  other  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors."  This  right  of  impeachment 
was  as  yet  undefined,  and  if  stretched  a  little 
beyond  strict  construction  it  might  easily  be 
converted  into  something  for  which  it  had  not 
been  intended  ;  might  even  be  made  to  serve 
for  the  British  removal  of  judges  by  address. 
That,  in  order  to  do  this,  the  strict  construe- 
tionists  must  strain  the  language  of  the  Consti 
tution  out  of  its  true  sense  was  evident,  but 
they  had,  without  flinching,  faced  the  same  dif 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  133 

ficulty  in  the  Louisiana  purchase.     The  actual 
disregard  of  the  Constitution  would  hardly  be 
so  flagrant  in  regard  to  impeachment  as  it  had 
been  in  regard  to  the  treaty-making  power. 
This  suggestion  was  actually  carried  out  bv 

OO  J  %J 

the  impeachment  of  Judge  Pickering  in  1803-4. 
In  this  case  twenty  Senators  had  voted  Judge 
Pickering's  removal  from  office  on  a  simple  hear 
ing  of  the  case,  without  defence  or  even  the  ap 
pearance  of  the  accused  by  counsel.  The  final 
vote  had  not  declared  Pickering  guilty  either 
of  high  crimes  or  misdemeanors,  but  simply 
"  guilty  as  charged."  The  proceeding  was  a 
mere  inquest  of  office  under  a  judicial  form.  In 
the  eyes  of  Randolph,  Nicholson,  Macon,  Giles, 
and  the  Virginian  school  in  general,  an  impeach 
ment  and  a  removal  from  office  by  this  process 
need  imply  no  criminality  ;  it  was  a  declaration 
by  Congress  that  a  judge  held  dangerous  opin 
ions,  which  made  it  necessary  for  the  public 
safety  that  another  man  should  be  substituted 
in  his  place.  In  their  eyes  the  Senate  was  not 
to  be  considered  a  court  of  justice,  but  simply 
a  part  of  the  constitutional  machine  for  making 
appointments  and  removals. 

In  theory  this  view  was  very  simple  and  rea 
sonable  ;  in  practice  it  met  with  difficulties. 
The  conviction  of  Pickering  in  March,  1804, 
carried  by  nineteen  votes  in  a  Senate  of 


134  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

thirty-four  members,  and,  even  after  conviction, 
only  twenty  senators  voted  for  his  removal. 
Five  administration  senators  absented  them 
selves;  several  others  voted  unwillingly,  and 
the  immediate  impeachment  of  Chase  on  the 
very  day  of  Pickering's  conviction  startled  these 
hesitating  republicans,  whose  consciences  were 
already  so  heavy  laden.  Other  difficulties  were 
still  more  certain.  A  summary  vote  of  expul 
sion  from  office,  which  was  feasible  enough  in 
the  case  of  a  friendless,  absent,  unknown,  and 
imbecile  New  Hampshire  district  judge,  was  out 
of  the  question  when  a  venerable  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  Sen 
ate,  backed  by  a  body-guard  of  the  ablest  law 
yers  in  America,  who  were  considerably  less 
afraid  of  Congressmen  than  Congressmen  of 
them.  There  could  be  no  summary  process 
here.  There  must  be  a  regular,  formal  trial, 
according  to  the  rules  and  principles  of  law. 
The  Senate  must  be  a  court. 

Cogent  reasons,  therefore,  forced  Randolph 
at  the  outset  to  abandon  his  own  theory  of  im 
peachment,  and,  what  was  much  more  fatal,  to 
establish  a  precedent  tending  to  break  this 
theory  down.  He  began  by  accepting  the  whole 
paraphernalia  of  the  law,  and  by  demanding  the 
conviction  of  Chase  as  a  criminal.  By  thus  ad 
mitting  that  criminality  of  a  deep  nature  alone 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  135 

warranted  the  removal  of  a  supreme  judge, 
Randolph's  victory  would  have  made  impeach 
ment  as  useless  as  his  defeat  made  it,  for  there 
never  sat  on  the  Supreme  Bench  another  judge 
rash  enough  to  imitate  Chase  by  laying  himself 
open  to  such  a  charge.  To  restore  its  useful 
ness  he  must  have  fought  another  battle  under 
great  disadvantages. 

Judge  Chase's  offences  were  serious.  The 
immediate  cause  of  impeachment,  his  address  to 
the  grand  jury  at  Baltimore  on  the  2d  May, 
1803,  proved  that  he  was  not  a  proper  person 
to  be  trusted  with  the  interpretation  of  the 
laws.  In  this  address  he  said  that  those  laws 
were  rapidly  destroying  all  protection  to  prop 
erty  and  all  security  to  personal  liberty.  u  The 
late  alteration  of  the  federal  Judiciary,"  said 
he,  "  by  the  abolition  of  the  office  of  the  six 
teen  circuit  judges,  and  the  recent  change  in 
our  state  Constitution  by  the  establishing  of 
universal  suffrage,  and  the  further  alteration 
that  is  contemplated  in  our  state  Judiciary,  if 
adopted,  will,  in  my  judgment,  take  away  all 
security  for  property  and  personal  liberty.  The 
independence  of  the  national  Judiciary  is  al 
ready  shaken  to  its  foundations,  and  the  virtue 
of  the  people  alone  can  restore  it."  That  by 
this  reference  to  the  virtue  of  the  people  he 
meant  to  draw  a  contrast  with  the  want  of  vir- 


136  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

tue  in  their  government  was  made  clear  by  a 
pointed  insult  to  Mr.  Jefferson :  "  The  mod 
ern  doctrines  by  our  late  reformers,  that  all 
men  in  a  state  of  society  are  entitled  to  enjoy 
equal  liberty  and  equal  rights,  have  brought 
this  mighty  mischief  upon  us,  and  I  fear  that  it 
will  rapidly  progress  until  peace  and  order,  free 
dom  and  property,  shall  be  destroyed."  These 
opinions  were  formidable,  because  they  were 
held  by  every  member  of  the  Supreme  Court ; 
for  they  were  the  opinions  of  the  federalist 
party,  whose  leaders  were  at  this  moment,  on 
the  same  system  of  reasoning,  preparing  for  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union. 

There  was  gross  absurdity  in  the  idea  that 
the  people  who,  by  an  immense  majority,  had 
decided  to  carry  on  their  government  in  one 
way  should  be  forced  by  one  of  their  own  ser 
vants  to  turn  about  and  go  in  the  opposite  di 
rection  ;  and  the  indecorum  was  greater  than 
the  absurdity,  for  if  Judge  Chase  or  any  other 
official  held  such  doctrines,  even  though  he  were 
right,  he  was  bound  not  to  insult  officially  the 
people  who  employed  him.  On  these  grounds 
Mr.  Jefferson  privately,  advised  the  impeach 
ment,  and  perhaps  Randolph  might  have  acted 
more  wisely  had  he  followed  Mr.  Jefferson's 
hint  to  rely  on  this  article  alone,  which  in  the 
end  came  nearer  than  any  other  to  securing  con* 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE.  137 

viction.  In  so  cumbersome  a  procedure  as  that 
of  impeachment,  it  was  peculiarly  necessary  to 
narrow  the  field  of  dispute,  to  exclude  doubtful 
points  of  law,  and  avoid  cumulative  charges. 

Randolph  thought  otherwise.  Conscious  that 
lie  would  meet  with  strong  opposition  in  the 
Senate,  he  determined  to  make  his  attack  over 
whelming  by  proving  criminality,  even  though 
in  doing  it  he  gave  up  for  the  time  his  theory 
that  impeachment  need  imply  no  criminal  of 
fence  ;  and  therefore,  placing  the  real  cause  of 
impeachment  last  in  the  order  of  his  articles, 
he  threw  into  the  foreground  a  long  series  of 
charges,  which  concerned  only  questions  of  law. 
Going  back  to  the  year  1800  and  the  famous 
trials  of  Fries  and  Callender,  he  made  out  of 
these  materials  no  less  than  six  complicated 
articles,  embracing  numerous  charges.  Still 
another  article  was  framed  to  cover  a  com 
plaint  founded  on  the  judge's  treatment  of  the 
grand  jury  at  Newcastle  in  the  same  year. 
Thus  these  seven  heads  of  impeachment,  in 
tended  as  they  were  to  support  each  other  with 
irresistible  cumulative  power,  withdrew  the 
trial  from  the  region  of  politics,  and  involved 
it  beyond  extrication  in  the  meshes  of  legal 
methods  and  maxims.  Bristling  with  difficult 
points  of  pure  law ;  turning  on  doubtful  ques 
tions  of  practice;  involving  a  flat  assumption 


138  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

of  numerous  abstract  propositions,  they  required 
a  categorical,  off-hand  decision  on  the  rules  of 
evidence,  the  reciprocal  rights  and  duties  of 
judge,  counsel,  and  jury,  the  customs  in  differ 
ent  courts  and  in  different  places,  the  legality 
of  bad  manners,  and  the  humanity  of  strict 
law,  only  to  prove  that  Justice  Chase  had  been 
actuated  by  corrupt  and  criminal  motives,  —  for 
it  seemed  at  first  to  be  conceded  that  no  mere 
error  of  judgment  would  warrant  his  conviction. 
The  articles  of  impeachment  which  Randolph 
presented  to  the  House  on  March  26,  1804,  and 
which  were,  he  claimed,  drawn  up  with  his  own 
hand,  rested  wholly  on  the  theory  of  Chase's 
criminality  ;  they  contained  no  suggestion  that 
impeachment  was  a  mere  inquest  of  office.  But 
when  Congress  met  again,  and,  on  December 
3,  the  subject  came  before  the  House,  it  was 
noticed  that  two  new  articles,  the  fifth  and 
sixth,  had  been  quietly  interpolated,  which 
roused  suspicion  of  a  change  in  Randolph's  plan. 
No  one  could  say  that  the  original  charges  in 
volved  any  other  victim  than  the  one  named  in 
them  ;  they  could  not  be  tortured  into  an  at 
tack  on  the  court  as  a  whole  ;  but  the  two 
new  articles  wore  a  threatening  look.  The  fifth 
Charged  that  Judge  Chase  had  issued  a  capias 
against  the  body  of  Callender,  whereas  the  law 
of  Virginia  required  a  summons  to  appear  at 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  139 

the  next  court ;  it  alleged  no  evil  intent,  as  all 
the  other  articles  had  done,  and  by  thus  making 
a  mere  error  impeachable  it  put  the  whole  court 
at  the  mercy  of  Congress.  The  sixth  went  far 
ther.  Assuming  that  the  statute  required  the 
federal  courts  to  follow  in  each  State  of  the 
'Union  the  modes  of  process  usual  in  that  State, 
this  article  impeached  Judge  Chase  for  having 
held  Callender  to  trial  at  the  same  term  at  which 
he  was  indicted.  Although  the  sixth,  unlike  the 
fifth,  article  alleged  that  this  act  was  done 
"  with  intent  to  oppress,"  it  was  peculiarly 
alarming,  because  one  of  the  earliest  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  had  been  directly  contrary 
to  the  doctrine  that  the  United  States  courts 
were  bound  to  follow  the  modes  of  process 
usual  in  the  state  courts,  and  there  was  not  a 
judge  on  the  supreme  bench  whose  practice  in 
this  respect  had  not  rendered  him  liable  to  im 
peachment  on  the  same  charge.  No  one  could 
doubt  that  Randolph  and  his  friends,  seeing 
how  little  their  ultimate  object  would  be  ad 
vanced  by  a  conviction  on  the  old  charges,  in 
serted  these  new  articles  in  order  to  correct 
their  mistake  and  to  make  a  foundation  for  the 
freer  use  of  impeachment  as  a  political  weapon. 
The  behavior  of  Giles  and  his  friends  in  the 
Senate  strengthened  this  suspicion.  He  made 
uo  concealment  of  his  theories,  and  labored 


140  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

earnestly  to  prevent  the  Senate  from  calling 
itself  a  court,  or  from  exercising  any  functions 
that  belonged  to  a  court  of  law.  To  some  ex 
tent  he  succeeded,  but  when  at  last  he  declared 
that  the  Secretary  had  no  right  to  administer 
an  oath,  and  that  a  magistrate  must  be  called 
in  for  the  purpose;  when  he  was  led  still  further 
to  acknowledge  that  on  his  doctrine  the  Senate 
itself  had  no  right  to  issue  writs,  summonses, 
and  subpoanas,  so  that  all  the  proceedings  against 
Judge  Pickering  had  been  unconstitutional  and 
his  removal  illegal,  the  Senate  lost  patience  and 
rebelled.  From  that  moment  the  fate  of  Ran 
dolph  was  sealed. 

In  all  these  transactions  Giles  and  Randolph 
acted  in  the  closest  alliance.  Their  idea  of 
impeachment  was  honestly  held  and  openly 
avowed;  they  did  their  utmost  to  force  it  on 
their  party,  and  it  is  clear  that,  except  on  such 
a  theory,  Randolph  was  absurdly  out  of  place 
in  trying  to  conduct  a  trial  of  such  importance. 
For  an  inquest  of  office,  whatever  such  a  pro 
ceeding  might  be,  he  was  perhaps  as  competent 
as  another  ;  but  that  a  Virginian  planter,  who 
occasionally  sat  on  a  grand  jury,  should  be  vain 
enough  to  suppose  himself  capable  of  arguing 
the  most  perplexed  questions  of  legal  practice 
was  incredible ;  and  when,  in  addition,  he  was 
obliged  to  fling  his  glove  in  the  faces  of  the  best 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE.  141 

lawyers  in  America,  his  rashness  became  laugh 
able.  Even  though  he  had  all  the  resources  of 
his  party  in  the  House  to  draw  upon,  including 
Joseph  H.  Nicholson  and  Caesar  A.  Rodney, 
both  fair  lawyers,  yet  at  the  bar  before  him  he 
saw  not  only  Justice  Chase,  keen,  vigorous,  with 
long  experience  and  ample  learning,  but  also,  at 
Chase's  side,  counsel  such  as  neither  Senate  nor 
House  could  command,  at  whose  head,  most  for 
midable  of  American  advocates,  was  the  rollick 
ing,  witty,  audacious  Attorney-General  of  Mary 
land;  boon  companion  of  Chase  and  the  whole 
bar ;  drunken,  generous,  slovenly,  grand  ;  bull 
dog  of  federalism,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  called  him ; 
shouting  with  a  school-boy's  fun  at  the  idea 
of  tearing  Randolph's  indictment  to  pieces  and 
teaching  the  Virginian  democrats  some  law,  — 
the  notorious  reprobate  genius,  Luther  Martin. 
If  the  sight  of  these  professional  enemies 
were  not  enough  to  disturb  Randolph's  self- 
confidence  as  he  rose  to  open  the  case  under 
their  contemptuous  eyes,  the  sight  of  the  senate- 
chamber  might  have  done  so  without  their  aid. 
In  spite  of  all  his  party  influence,  Randolph 
saw  few  men  before  him  upon  whose  friendly 
sympathy  he  could  count.  Hated  by  the  north 
ern  democrats,  he  saw  the  head  and  front  of 
northern  democracy,  Aaron  Burr,  presiding 
over  the  court.  The  supreme  bench,  led  by 


142  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Chief  Justice  Marshall,  a  man  whom  Randolph 
deeply  respected,  was  looking  on  with  sym 
pathies  which  were  certainly  not  with  him. 
Among  southern  senators,  his  closest  associate 
was  Giles  of  Virginia,  whom  no  man  ever 
trusted  without  regret.  The  thirty-four  senators 
consisted  of  eleven  northern  democrats,  four 
teen  democrats  from  the  South,  and  nine  fed 
eralists.  If  from  his  own  party  Randolph  could 
expect  little  genuine  regard,  it  is  easy  to  con 
ceive  the  intensity  of  ill-will  with  which  the 
federalist  senators  listened  to  his  argument. 
Moderate  men,  like  Bayard  of  Delaware,  and 
Dayton  of  New  Jersey,  had  little  patience  with 
him  or  his  opinions,  while  the  New  England 
senators  regarded  him  with  extreme  antipathy 
and  contempt  as  hearty  as  that  which  he  had  so 
freely  showered  on  them  and  their  friends.  To 
face  the  humor  of  Tracy,  the  senator  from  Con 
necticut,  was  more  trying  than  to  defy  the  bit 
ter  tongue  of  Timothy  Pickering,  which  spared 
not  even  his  own  personal  and  party  friends,  or 
to  ignore  the  presence  of  Pickering's  colleague, 
the  "  cub,"  who  was  "  a  greater  bear  than  the 
old  one,"  and  whose  capacity  for  expressing  con 
tempt  was  exceeded  only  by  his  right  to  feel  it, 
—  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams  of  Massachusetts. 

Before  this  unsympathetic  band  of  critics,  on 
the  9th  February,  1805,  Randolph  and  his  as 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  143 

sociates  appeared,  and  in  a  speech  of  about 
one  hour  and  a  half,  which  by  its  unusual  cau 
tion  proved  that,  if  not  cowed,  he  was  at  least 
for  once  subdued  by  the  occasion  and  the  au 
dience,  he  unfolded  to  the  Senate  his  articles 
of  impeachment.  On  no  other  occasion  in  Ran 
dolph's  life  was  he  compelled  to  follow  a  long 
and  consecutive  train  of  thought  within  the 
narrow  bounds  of  logical  method,  and  his  argu 
ments  at  this  trial  are  therefore  the  only  exact 
test  of  his  reasoning  powers.  His  failure  was 
decided.  From  the  point  of  view  which  law 
yers  must  take,  his  arguments,  if  arguments 
they  can  be  called,  are  not  even  third-rate ; 
they  are  the  feeblest  that  were  made  in  the 
course  of  this  long  trial.  He  undertook  to 
speak  as  an  authority  upon  the  law,  when  he 
knew  no  more  law  than  his  own  overseer ;  nat 
urally  given  to  making  assertion  stand  for 
proof,  he  asserted  legal  principles  calculated  to 
make  Luther  Martin's  e'yes  sparkle  with  delight. 
From  first  to  last  he  never  rose  above  the  at 
mosphere  of  a  court  room.  Avoiding  all  discus 
sion  of  impeachment  as  a  theory,  and  leaving 
unnoticed  the  political  meaning  of  his  eighth 
article,  he  deliberately  tangled  his  limbs  in  the 
meshes  of  law,  and  offered  himself  a  willing 
victim  to  the  beak  and  claws  of  the  eagles  who 
were  marking  him  for  their  sport. 


144  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

To  analyze  such  an  address  is  useless.  Not 
even  the  warmest  of  his  friends  has  ever  thought 
it  a  good  example  of  his  merits,  and  no  one  will 
care  to  waste  time  in  proving  self-evident  de 
fects.  Nevertheless,  the  peroration  has  been 
often  quoted  as  a  specimen  of  his  more  care 
fully  studied  eloquence,  and  since  this  perora 
tion  illustrates  the  best  as  well  as  the  worst  of 
the  speech  it  shall  stand  as  a  fair  test  of  its 
value. 

"  The  respondent  hath  closed  his  defence  by  an  ap 
peal  to  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts  for  the  purity  of 
his  motives.  For  his  sake  I  rejoice  that  by  the  timely 
exercise  of  that  mercy,  which  for  wise  purposes  has 
been  reposed  in  the  Executive,  this  appeal  is  not 
drowned  by  the  blood  of  an  innocent  man  crying 
aloud  for  vengeance  ;  that  the  mute  agony  of  widowed 
despair  and  the  wailing  voice  of  the  orphan  do  not 
plead  to  Heaven  for  justice  on  the  oppressor's  head. 
But  for  that  intervention,  self-accusation  before  that 
dread  tribunal  would  have  been  needless.  On  that 
awful  day  the  blood  of  a  poor,  ignorant,  friendless, 
unlettered  German,  murdered  under  the  semblance 
and  color  of  law,  would  have  risen  in  judgment  at 
the  throne  of  grace  against  the  unhappy  man  ar 
raigned  at  your  bar.  But  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  a  well-timed  act  at  once  of  justice 
and  mercy  (and  mercy,  like  charity,  covereth  a  mul 
titude  of  sins),  wrested  the  victim  from  his  grasp, 
and  saved  him  from  the  countless  horrors  of  remorse 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE.  145 

by  not  suffering  the  pure  ermine  of  justice  to  be  dyed 
in  the  innocent  blood  of  John  Fries." 

These  words  closed   the   speech,   and    were 
doubtless  carefully   considered,  probably   com 
mitted  to  memory  in  advance,  and  intended  to 
produce  a  deep  effect  on  the  Senate ;  but  they 
will   not   bear  analysis.     In  drawing  the  arti 
cles    of   impeachment,  Randolph  had  carefully 
avoided  the  allegation  that  John  Fries  was  "  an 
innocent  man."     The  managers  had  no  idea  of 
taking  evidence  in  support  of   such  a  theory; 
they  preferred  to  avoid  it,  because  they  knew 
that  Fries  was  guilty,  under  aggravated  circum 
stances,  of  what  the  law  called  treason ;  that  in 
any  case   he  must  have  been  convicted ;    that 
his  counsel  had  thrown  up  their  brief,  against 
Judge  Chase's  prayers,  solely  because  they  saw 
no  other  ground  on  which  to  found  an  appeal 
for  executive  pardon ;  and,  finally,  that  Judge 
Chase  had  made  no  mistake  in  his  rulings.    All 
this  was  well  known  to  Randolph,  who  would 
certainly,  in  his  articles  of  impeachment,  have 
alleged  that  Fries  was  innocent,  had  there  been 
the   smallest  possibility  of   proving  it.     With 
what  decent  apology,  then,  could  Randolph  ven 
ture  upon  so  gross  and  evident  a  misstatement 
of  fact  ?    What  treatment  could  he  expect  from 
Luther  Martin  ? 

"  The  President  of  the  United  States,  by  a 

10 


146  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

well-timed  act  at  once  of  justice  and  of  mercy, 
wrested  the  victim  from  his  grasp."  What 
made  the  executive  pardon  an  act  of  justice? 
What  proved  it  ?  What  evidence  did  the 
managers  propose  to  offer  on  that  head  ?  None 
whatever.  President  Adams  pardoned  Fries  as 
an  act  of  mercy,  rather  than  hang,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  national  history,  a  political  crim 
inal,  who  had  thrown  himself,  undefended,  on 
the  court.  Judge  Chase  then  was  to  be  held 
guilty  because  President  Adams  had  not  hung 
Fries.  Curran  is  said  to  have  claimed  a  ver 
dict  from  an  Irish  jury  on  the  ground  that  his 
only  witness  had  been  spirited  away  by  the  at 
torney  for  the  defence.  Randolph  claimed  a 
conviction  on  the  ground  that,  had  the  Presi 
dent  not  spirited  away  all  excuse  for  complaint, 
there  might  have  been  a  grievance,  although 
none  was  alleged  in  the  indictment.  The  whole 
array  of  Chase's  counsel  must  have  joined  in 
broad  laughter  over  this  novel  idea,  as  they 
drank  that  night  to  the  confusion  of  democratic 
lawyers,  and  promised  themselves  a  pleasure  to 
come. 

Their  pleasure  came  in  due  time.  If  any 
student  of  American  history,  curious  to  test  the 
relative  value  of  reputations,  will  read  Ran 
dolph's  opening  address,  and  then  pass  on  to 
the  argument  of  Luther  Martin,  he  will  feel 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  147 

the  distance  between  show  and  strength,  be 
tween  intellectual  brightness  and  intellectual 
power.  Nothing  can  be  finer  in  its  way  than 
Martin's  famous  speech.  Its  rugged  and  sus 
tained  force ;  its  strong  humor,  audacity,  and 
dexterity ;  its  even  flow  and  simple  choice  of 
language,  free  from  rhetoric  and  affectations ; 
its  close  and  compulsive  grip  of  the  law;  its 
good-natured  contempt  for  the  obstacles  put 
in  its  way,  —  all  these  signs  of  elemental  vigor 
were  like  the  forces  of  nature,  simple,  direct, 
fresh  as  winds  and  ocean,  but  they  were  op 
posite  qualities  to  those  which  Randolph  dis 
played.  The  contrast  with  Randolph's  closing 
address  is  much  more  striking ;  for  whether 
it  were  that  the  long  excitement  had  broken 
his  strength,  or  that  the  arguments  of  Martin, 
Harper,  Hopkinson,  and  Key  had  shattered 
his  indictment  and  humiliated  his  pride,  or 
whether,  in  this  painful  effort  to  imitate  legal 
minds  and  logical  methods,  he  at  last  flung 
himself  like  a  child  on  the  ground,  crushed  by 
the  consciousness  that  his  mind  could  not  fol 
low  out  a  fixed  train  of  thought,  could  not  sup 
port  the  weight  of  this  intellectual  armor  which 
it  had  rashly  put  on,  certain  it  is  that  Randolph 
appeared  in  his  closing  speech  more  like  a  crim 
inal  fearing  sentence  than  like  a  tribune  of  the 
people  dragging  a  tyrant  to  his  doom. 


148  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

On  February  27,  1805,  he  appeared  before 
the  Senate  to  make  this  closing  address.  He 
was  ill  and  unprepared,  although  he  had  surely 
been  engaged  on  the  subject  long  enough  to 
need  little  more  preparation  than  a  single  night 
of  hard  work.  He  no  longer  had  the  lash  of 
Luther  Martin  to  fear,  for  his  own  word  was 
to  be  the  last ;  while  it  was  clear  that,  as  the 
case  stood,  conviction  was  more  than  doubt 
ful,  and  Randolph's  own  reputation  and  au 
thority  could  now  be  saved  only  by  some  seri 
ous  effort.  In  spite  of  all  these  motives  for 
exertion,  he  astonished  the  Senate  by  the  des 
ultory  and  erratic  style  of  his  address.  Soon 
he  broke  down.  He  was  forced  to  apologize  : 
he  had  lost,  he  said,  his  voluminous  notes ; 
but  it  was  only  too  evident  that  these  could  not 
have  helped  him ;  it  would  have  been  quite  in 
character  had  he,  in  his  disgust,  flung  his  notes 
into  the  fire,  conscious  that  he  was  helpless  to 
deal  with  their  mass  of  unmanageable  matter. 
With  or  without  notes,  no  man  of  a  clear  mind 
could  possibly  have  run  wild,  as  he  now  did. 
This  closing  argument  or  harangue,  great  as 
the  *  occasion  was,  hardly  rises  to  the  level  of 
Randolph's  ordinary  stump-speeches:  equally 
weak  in  arrangement  and  reasoning,  equally 
inexact  in  statement  and  violent  in  denuncia 
tion,  it  has  fewer  gleams  of  wit,  fewer  clever 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  149 

illustrations,  and  none  of  those  occasional  flashes 
of  inspired  prophecy  which  sometimes  startled 
hostile  hearers  into  admiration.  When  Ran 
dolph  sat  down  he  had  betrayed  his  own  weak 
ness  ;  he  was  no  longer  dangerous,  except  to  his 
friends. 

To  reproduce  or  analyze  an  harangue  like 
this,  of  which  Randolph  himself  was  keenly 
ashamed,  would  be  unfair.  He  was  honest  in 
acknowledging  his  failure,  and  it  is  useless  to 
prove  what  he  was  first  to  confess  and  pro 
claim.  The  task,  he  said,  was  one  for  which 
he  felt  himself  "  physically  as  well  as  morally 
incompetent."  "  My  weakness  and  want  of 
ability  prevent  me  from  urging  my  cause  as  I 
could  wish,  but  it  is  the  last  day  of  my  suffer 
ings  and  of  yours."  Again  and  again  he  apol 
ogized  to  the  Senate  for  his  incompetency  in 
a  manner  almost  abject,  as  though  he  were 
crushed  under  it.  He  did  more :  he  pleaded 
the  fact  in  deprecation  of  criticism.  The  news 
papers  of  the  time  show  how  complete  was 
the  impression  of  his  failure ;  but  among  the 
eye-witnesses  of  the  scene  was  one  who  re 
corded  on  the  spot  the  effect  made  upon  him  by 
Randolph  and  his  speech.  "  On  the  reopen 
ing  of  the  court,"  wrote  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams,  "  he 
began  a  speech  of  about  two  hours  and  a  half, 
with  as  little  relation  to  the  subject-matter  as 


150  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

possible, — without  order,  connection,  or  argu 
ment  ;  consisting  altogether  of  the  most  hack 
neyed  commonplaces  of  popular  declamation, 
mingled  up  with  panegyrics  and  invectives 
upon  persons,  with  a  few  well-expressed  ideas, 
a  few  striking  figures,  much  distortion  of  face 
and  contortion  of  body,  tears,  groans,  and  sobs, 
with  occasional  pauses  for  recollection,  and  con 
tinual  complaints  of  having  lost  his  notes.  He 
finished  about  half-past  two.  Mr.  Harper  then 
made  a  very  few  observations  on  one  of  the 
authorities  he  had  produced,  to  which  he  re 
plied  with  some  petulance." 

Mr.  Adams  was  certainly  a  warm  partisan  of 
Judge  Chase,  but  he  made  no  such  comments 
on  the  speeches  of  other  managers,  and  indeed 
paid  a  small  compliment  to  Rodney,  who  had 
spoken  the  day  before.  His  description  of  the 
contents  of  Randolph's  speech  is  accurate 
enough  to  create  confidence  in  his  account  of 
its  delivery,  and  it  is  only  to  be  regretted  that 
he  said  nothing  about  that  voice  which  Vir 
ginian  hearers  were  apt  to  think  the  most 
melodious  in  the  world. 

On  March  1  Randolph's  defeat  was  at  last 
seen  in  all  its  overwhelming  completeness. 
When  the  senators  came  to  a  vote,  only  the 
third,  fourth,  and  eighth  articles  received  even 
a  majority  of  their  voices.  The  highest  point 


TAZOO  AND  JUDGE   CHASE.  151 

reached  by  the  impeachers  was  in  the  vote  of 
19  to  15  on  the  eighth  article,  Mr.  Jefferson's 
peculiar  property.  Five  democratic  senators 
from  northern  States  and  Gaillard  of  South 
Carolina  refused  to  follow  Randolph's  lead. 
Worse  than  this,  so  thoroughly  had  Luther 
Martin  and  his  brother  counsel  broken  into 
atoms  the  suspicious  fifth  and  sixth  articles  of 
Randolph's  indictment  that  not  a  single  senator 
sustained  the  one,  and  only  four  supported  the 
other,  although  Randolph's  honor  was  at  stake, 
for  Martin  had  openly  charged  him  with  hav 
ing  misquoted  the  law  of  Virginia  ;  "  How  this 
hath  happened  is  not  for  me  to  say,"  and  no 
defence  was  offered  to  the  charge.  Wrathful 
beyond  measure,  Randolph  and  Nicholson  hur 
ried  back  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
on  the  spot  moved  that  two  new  articles  be 
added  to  the  Constitution.  Randolph's  amend 
ment  declared  that  all  judges  should  be  removed 
by  the  President  on  a  joint  address  of  both 
Houses ;  while  Nicholson  proposed  that  senators 
should  be  removable  at  any  time  by  the  legisla 
tures  of  their  own  States.  These  resolutions 
were  made  the  order  of  the  day  for  the  first 
Monday  in  December,  when  Congress  was  to 
meet.  The  same  evening  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams 
made  another  curious  entry  in  his  diary.  In 
formed  in  society  of  what  had  taken  place  in 


152  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  House,  he  added,  "  I  had  some  conversa 
tion  on  the  subject  with  Mr.  Madison,  who  ap 
peared  much  diverted  at  the  petulance  of  the 
managers  on  their  disappointment."  Consider 
ing  the  source  from  which  the  impeachment 
sprang,  Mr.  Madison's  diversion  would  perhaps 
have  seemed  to  be  in  better  taste,  had  it  been 
less  openly  displayed. 

This  was  the  end  of  Judge  Chase's  impeach 
ment,  a  political  mistake  from  its  inception  by 
Mr.  Jefferson  down  to  its  last  agonies  in  Ran 
dolph's  closing  address.  As  though  every  act 
of  Randolph's  life,  no  matter  what  its  motive 
or  its  management,  were  fated  to  injure  all  that 
he  most  regarded,  and  to  advance  every  inter 
est  he  hated,  so  this  impeachment  made  the 
Supreme  Court  impregnable ;  for  the  first  time 
the  Chief  Justice  could  breathe  freely.  Not 
only  had  Randolph  proved  impeachment  to  be 
a  clumsy  and  useless  instrument  as  applied 
to  judicial  officers,  but  he  seemed  reckless  in 
regard  to  the  fate  of  his  propbsed  constitu 
tional  amendment,  and  was  clearly  more  an 
gry  with  the  Senate  than  with  the  court.  As 
though  not  satisfied  with  allowing  Nicholson 
to  throw  a  gross  insult  in  the  very  faces  of 
senators  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
which  branded  them  as  false  to  their  constitu 
ents,  Randolph  would  not  allow  the  House  to 


YAZOO  AND  JUDGE  CHASE.  153 

appropriate  money  for  any  expenses  of  Judge 
Chase's  trial  except  such  as  should  be  certified 
by  himself,  and  in  no  case  for  the  expenses 
of  witnesses  for  the  defence.  Whether  he  was 
right  or  wrong  in  principle  was  a  matter  of 
little  consequence,  for,  in  the  temper  of  the 
two  Houses,  the  bill  thus  passed  was  a  positive 
insult  to  the  Senate.  Even  Giles  took  up  the 
challenge,  and  declared  that  as  he  had  drawn 
the  form  of  summons  by  which  all  the  wit 
nesses  had  been  commanded  to  attend,  without 
indicating  on  whose  behalf  they  were  called, 
he  could  not  admit  that  any  distinction  should 
be  made  in  paying  them.  The  Senate  unani 
mously  insisted  on  amending  the  bill,  and  Ran 
dolph  insisted  with  equal  obstinacy  that  the 
bill  should  not  be  amended.  The  two  Houses 
were  thus  driven  into  a  quarrel  and  the  bill 
was  lost.  Randolph  then,  in  flat  contradiction 
of  every  financial  doctrine  he  had  ever  pro 
fessed,  wished  the  House  to  pay  his  witnesses 
out  of  the  contingent  fund,  and  was  defeated 
only  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  federalist  mem 
bers,  which  left  the  House  without  a  quorum 
whenever  the  resolution  was  brought  up.  In 
the  midst  of  this  mischievous  confusion,  the 
session  ended  at  half-past  nine  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  March  3,  1805,  three  days  after 
Chase's  acquittal. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   QUARREL. 

THE  result  of  Chase's  trial  was  disastrous  to 
the  influence  of  Randolph  and  his  whole  sect. 
It  widened  the  breach  between  him  and  the 
northern  democrats,  and  deepened*  his  distrust 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison,  who  had 
taken  such  good  care  not  to  allow  their  own 
credit  to  be  involved  with  his.  The  Yazoo 
quarrel  added  intensity  to  the  feeling  of  bitter 
ness  with  which  the  session  closed.  When, 
after  March  4,  1805,  he  went  home  to  Bizarre, 
he  was  oppressed  with  feelings  of  disappoint 
ment  and  perhaps  of  rage.  There  is  no  proof 
that  he  held  the  President  or  Mr.  Madison 
responsible  for  the  defeat  of  the  impeachment; 
certainly  he  never  brought  such  a  charge ;  but 
he  thought  them  to  blame  for  the  lax  morality 
of  the  Yazoo  bill,  and  he  was  particularly  irri 
tated  with  Mr.  Madison,  whose  brother-in-law, 
John  G.  Jackson,  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Virginia,  had  been  a  prominent  supporter  of 
that  bill,  and  had  sharply  criticised  Randolph's 
course  in  a  speech  to  the  House  at  a  time  when 


THE   QUARREL.  155 

Randolph's  authority  was  trembling  on  the 
verge  of  overthrow.  A  few  extracts  from  let 
ters  written  during  the  summer  to  Joseph 
Nicholson  will  show  the  two  correspondents 
and  friends  in  their  own  fairest  light :  — 

RANDOLPH   TO   NICHOLSON. 

"  BIZARRE,  29  March,  1805.  .  .  .  My  sins  against 
Monroe,  in  whose  debt  I  have  been  for  near  five 
months,  would  have  excited  something  of  compunc 
tion  in  me  were  I  any  longer  susceptible  of  such  sen 
sations ;  but  I  will*  write  to  him  immediately  on  your 
subject ;  and,  take  my  word  for  it,  my  good  friend, 
he  is  precisely  that  man  to  whom  your  spirit  would 
not  disdain  to  be  obliged.  For,  if  I  know  you,  there 
are  very  few  beings  in  this  vile  world  of  ours  from 
whom  you  would  not  scorn  even  the  semblance  of  Ob 
ligation.  In  a  few  weeks  I  shall  sail  for  London  my 
self.  ...  I  gather  from  the  public  prints  that  we  are 
severely  handled  by  the  feds  and  their  new  allies. 
Not  the  least  equivocal  proof,  my  friend,  that  the 
trust  reposed  in  us  has  not  been  betrayed.  I  hope  to 
be  back  in  time  to  trail  a  pike  with  you  in  the  next 
campaign.  ...  I  wish  very  much  to  have  if  it  were 
but  half  an  hour's  conversation  with  you.  Should 
you  see  Gallatin,  commend  me  to  him  and  that  ad 
mirable  woman  his  wife.  What  do  you  augur  from 
the  vehement  puff  of  B[urr]  ?  As  you  well  know, 
I  never  was  among  his  persecutors,  but  this  is  over 
stepping  the  modesty  of  nature.  Besides,  we  were 
in  Washington  at  the  time,  and  heard  nothing  of  the 


156  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

miraculous  effects  of  his  valedictory.  Rely  upon  it, 
strange  things  are  at  hand.  Never  did  the  times  re 
quire  more  union  and  decision  among  the  real  friends 
of  freedom.  But  shall  we  ever  see  decision  or  un 
ion  ?  I  fear  not.  To  those  men  who  are  not  dis 
posed  to  make  a  job  of  politics,  never  did  public 
affairs  present  a  more  awful  aspect.  Everything  and 
everybody  seems  to  be  jumbled  out  of  place,  except 
a  few  men  who  are  steeped  in  supine  indifference, 
whilst  meddling  fools  and  designing  knaves  are 
governing  the  country  under  the  sanction  of  their 
names." 

"  30  April.  Of  all  the  birds  of  the  air,  who  should 
light  upon  me  to-day  but  our  dapper  sergeant-at- 
arms.  His  presence  would  have  been  of  little  mo 
ment  had  he  not  informed  me  that  he  left  you  in 
"Washington  in  your  usual  good  health  and  spirits. 
You  know  Wheaton,  and  will  not  be  surprised  when  I 
tell  you  that  from  his  impertinences  I  picked  up  some 
intelligence  not  altogether  uninteresting.  The  ex- 
Vice  [Burr]  and  Dayton,  between  whom,  you  know, 
there  has  long  subsisted  a  close  political  connection, 
and  my  precious  colleague  Jackson,  who  is  deeply  con- 
icd  with  this  last  in  some  ver^uaasttrly  specula- 
with  J.  Smith,  ofi  Ohio,  himself  no 
)vlce,  and  whose  votes  on  a  late  occasion  you  cannot 
forgotten,  have  given  each  other  the  rendezvous 
northwestern  corner  of  our  Union.  The  pi- 

i  *• 

and  faithful  Achates  are,  I  understand, 
about  to  reconnoitre  lower  Louisiana.  As  to  the  up 
per  district,  I  have  no  doubt  they  can  safely  trust 


THE  QUARREL.  157 

that  province  to  their  well- tried  coadjutor,  the  new 
Governor  [Wilkinson].  Nicholson,  my  good  friend, 
rely  upon  it,  this  conjunction  of  malign  planets  bodes 
no  good.  As  Mr.  J.  is  again  seated  in  the  saddle  for 
four  years,  with  a  prospect  of  reelection  for  life,  the 
whole  force  of  the  adversaries  of  the  man,  and,  what 
is  of  more  moment,  of  his  principles,  will  be  bent  to 
take  advantage  of  the  easy  credulity  of  his  temper, 
and  thus  arm  themselves  with  power,  to  set  both  at 
defiance  as  soon  as  their  schemes  are  ripe  for  execu 
tion.  I  do  not  like  the  aspect  of  affairs.  ...  If 
you  have  not  amused  yourself  with  the  Dean  of  St. 
Patrick's  lately,  let  me  refer  you  to  his  'Free 
Thoughts  on  the  Present  State  of  Affairs '  for  a  de 
scription  of  a  race  of  politicians  who  have  thriven 
wonderfully  since  his  time.  The  *  whimsicals  '  ad 
vocated  the  leading  measures  of  their  party  until 
they  were  nearly  ripe  for  execution,  when  they  hung 
back,  condemned  the  step  after  it  was  taken,  and  on 
most  occasions  affected  a  glorious  neutrality." 

"  23  October.  ...  I  saw  the  great  match  for  three 
thousand  dollars :  Mr.  Tayloe's  Peacemaker,  5  years 
old,  Ibs.  118,  against  Mr.  Ball's  ch.  c.  Florizel,  4  years 
old,  Ibs.  106,  both  by  Diomed;  four  mile  heats.  It 
was  won  with  perfect  ease  by  Florizel,  beating  his 
adversary  in  a  canter.  .  .  .  Thus,  you  see,  while 
you  turbulent  folks  on  the  east  of  Chesapeake  are 
wrangling  about  Snyder  and  McKean,  we  old  Virgin 
ians  are  keeping  it  up,  more  majorum.  De  gustibus 
aon  est  disputandum,  says  the  proverb  ;  nevertheless, 
I  cannot  envy  the  taste  of  him  who  finds  more 


158  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

amusement  in  the  dull  scurrility  of  a  newspaper  than 
in  '  Netherby's  Calendar,'  and  prefers  an  election 
ground  to  a  race-field.  That  good  fellow  Rodney 
has  taken  the  trouble  to  send  me  a  Philadelphia 
print,  full  of  abuse  against  myself,  for  which  I  had  to 
pay  7/6  postage.  If  there  had  been  any  point  in  the 
piece  I  should  have  thought  it  very  hard  to  be  obliged 
to  pay  for  having  my  feelings  wounded  ;  and  as  it  is, 
to  see  a  nameless  somebody  expose  himself  in  an  at 
tempt  to  slander  me  is  not  worth  the  money.  I  do 
not  understand  their  actings  and  doings  in  our  neigh 
bor  State.  As  Dr.  Doubly  says,  I  fear  there  is  some 
thing  wrong  on  both  sides.  On  the  one  hand  indis 
cretion,  intemperance,  and  rashness ;  on  the  other, 
versatility  and  treachery.  I  speak  of  the  leaders. 
As  to  the  mass  of  society,  they  always  mean  well,  as 
it  never  can  become  their  interest  to  do  ill.  Before 
the  election  for  Governor  was  decided  in  Pennsylva 
nia,  I  was  somewhat  dubious  whether  we  should  be 
able  to  reinstate  Macon  in  the  Speaker's  chair.  I 
am  now  seriously  apprehensive  for  his  election  ;  and 
more  on  his  account  than  from  public  considerations, 
although  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  House,  himself 
and  one  other  excepted,  who  is  in  any  respect  quali 
fied  for  the  office.  I  cannot  deny  that  the  insult 
offered  to  the  man  would  move  me  more  than  the  in 
jury  done  the  public  by  his  rejection.  Indeed,  I  am 
not  sure  that  such  a  step,  although  productive  of 
temporary  inconvenience,  would  not  be  followed  by 
permanent  good  effects.  It  would  open  fche  eyes  of 
many  well-meaning  persons,  who,  in  avoiding  the 


THE   QUARREL.  159 

Scylla  of  innovation,  have  plunged  into  the  Charybdis 
of  federalism.  ...  Do  not  fail  to  be  in  Washing 
ton  time  enough  to  counteract  the  plot  against  the 
Speaker,  and  pray  apprise  such  of  his  friends  as  are 
within  your  reach  of  its  existence." 

When  we  reflect  that  these  letters  were  writ 
ten  by  one  angry  politician  to  another,  and  that 
Randolph's  relations  with  Nicholson  were  ab 
solutely  confidential,  it  must  be  agreed  that  on 
the  whole  they  give  an  agreeable  impression  of 
Randolph.  We  see  him,  with  Nicholson,  Ma- 
con,  and  a  few  other  very  honest  men,  looking 
on  with  anxiety  while  Burr  and  Dayton  were 
hatching  their  plot,  and  working  on  the  "  easy 
credulity "  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  temper.  Their 
anxiety  was  not  without  ample  cause,  although 
Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  share  it  until  too  late  to 
prevent  the  danger.  We  see  them  watching 
"  meddling  fools  and  designing  knaves "  who 
surrounded  the  administration,  and  their  esti 
mates  of  character  were  not  very  far  from  right. 
We  see,  too,  the  contempt  with  which  Ran 
dolph's  group  regarded  the  "  whimsicals  "  of 
their  party,  and  "  my  precious  colleague  Jack 
son,"  brother-in-law  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
and  John  Smith  of  Ohio,  Burr's  friend,  who 
had  voted  for  Justice  Chase's  acquittal.  There 
is  no  sign  of  violence  or  revenge  in  these  let 
ters  ;  in  reading  them  one  is  forced  to  believe 


160  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

that  in  this  Virginian  character  there  were  two 
sides,  so  completely  distinct  that  the  one  had  no 
connection  with  the  other.  The  nobler  traits, 
shown  only  to  those  he  loved,  were  caught 
by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  a  portrait  painted  in  this 
year,  when  Randolph  was  thirty-three.  Open, 
candid,  sweet  in  expression,  full  of  warmth, 
sympathy,  and  genius,  this  portrait  expresses  all 
his  higher  instincts,  and  interprets  the  mystery 
of  the  affection  and  faith  he  inspired  in  his 
friends.  If  there  were  other  expressions  in 
this  mobile  face  which  the  painter  did  not  care 
to  render,  he  at  least  succeeded  in  showing  art 
ists  what  the  world  values  most,  — how  to  re 
spect  and  dignify  their  subject. 

Randolph's  letters  to  Nicholson  were  not 
more  temperate  or  sensible  than  those  he  wrote 
to  Gallatin  at  the  same  time,  which  covertly 
suggest  without  openly  expressing  two  of  the 
writer's  antipathies,  the  Smiths  of  Maryland 
and  Mr.  Madison.  Robert  Smith  was  Seci 
tary  of  the  Navy,  and  Mr.  Madison  was  a 
with  Mr.  Monroe  for  the  succession  to  tl 
presidency. 

RANDOLPH   TO    GALLATIN. 

"  28  June,  1805.  ...  I  do  not  understand  your 
manoeuvres  at  headquarters,  nor  should  I  be  sur 
prised  to  see  the  Navy  Department  abolished,  or,  in 
more  appropriate  phrase,  swept  by  the  board,  at  the 


THE    QUARREL.  161 

next  session  of  Congress.  The  nation  has  had  the 
most  conclusive  proof  that  a  head  is  no  necessary  ap 
pendage  to  the  establishment." 

"  25  October.  ...  I  look  forward  to  the  ensuing 
session  of  Congress  with  no  very  pleasant  feelings. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  place, 
natural  as  well  as  acquired,  I  anticipate  a  plentiful 
harvest  of  bickering  and  blunders ;  of  which,  how 
ever,  I  hope  to  be  a  quiet,  if  not  an  unconcerned 
spectator.  ...  I  regret  exceedingly  Mr.  Jefferson's 
resolution  to  retire,  and  almost  as  much  the  prema 
ture  annunciation  of  that  determination.  It  almost 
precludes  a  revision  of  his  purpose,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  intrigues  which  it  will  set  on  foot.  If  I  were 
sure  that  Monroe  would  succeed  him,  my  regret  would 
be  very  much  diminished.  Here,  you  see,  the  Vir 
ginian  breaks  out ;  but,  like  the  Prussian  cadet,  '  I 
must  request  you  not  to  make  this  known  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury.'  " 

The  sudden  announcement  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
withdrawal  now  made  Madison  a  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1808,  and,  in  Randolph's 
opinion,  Madison  was  a  Yazoo  man,  a  colorless 
semi-federalist,  an  intriguer  with  northern  dem 
ocrats  and  southern  speculators,  one  who  never 
set  his  face  firmly  against  an  intrigue  or  a  job. 
Holding  the  man  at  this  low  estimate,  it  was 
out  of  the  question  for  Randolph  to  support  him, 
and  he  turned  to  Monroe,  who  alone  could  con 
test  with  Madison  the  State  of  Virginia.  As 


11 


,    k 
f  * 


162  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

luck  would  have  it,  Mr.  Madison,  unknown  to 
Randolph,  was  doing  much  to  justify  this  hos 
tility.  Between  him  and  the  President  at 
Washington,  and  Mr.  Monroe  and  Mr.  Charles 
Pinckney  at  Madrid,  the  Spanish  dispute  had 
been  brought  to  a  pass  which  only  Randolph's 
tongue  could  describe.  After  claiming  West 
Florida  as  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase, 
and  allowing  Randolph  to  erect  Mobile  by  law 
into  a  collection  district  for  the  United  States 
customs,  they  had  been  compelled  to  receive  a 
terrible  castigation  from  the  Marquis  of  Casa 
Yrujo  at  Washington,  and  to  hear  his  bitter 
severities  supported  at  Madrid  and  indorsed  at 
Paris.  Their  own  minister  at  Madrid,  Charles 
Pinckney,  undertaking  to  bully  the  Spanish 
government  into  concessions,  actually  made  a 
sort  of  public  declaration  of  war,  which  Mr. 
Madison  hastily  disavowed  by  sending  Monroe 
to  Madrid.  Monroe  suffered  ignominious  de 
feat.  The  Spanish  government,  which  as  must 
be  owned,  was  wholly  in  the  right,  listened  very 
civilly  to  all  that  Monroe  had  to  say,  and  after 
eeping  him  five  months  hanging  about  Madrid 
declined  to  yield  a  single  point,  and  left  him 
to  travel  back  to  Paris  in  high  dudgeon.  At 
Paris,  M.  Talleyrand  coldly  announced  that  an 
attack  upon  Spain  was  an  attack  upon  France, 
and  that  Spain  was  right  in  every  particular 


THE    QUARREL.  163 

Monroe  returned  to  his  legation  at  London,  not 
a  little  bewildered  and  mortified,  just  in  time 
to  find  that  Mr.  Pitt,  during  his  absence,  had 
upset  the  rules  hitherto  recognized  as  regulating 
the  subject  of  neutral  commerce,  and  that  Sir 
William  Scott  had  announced  in  his  Admiralty 
Court  a  new  decision,  which  swept  scores  of 
innocent  American  ships,  without  warning,  as 
good  prize  into  British  ports. 

Here  was  a  list  of  misadventures  well  calcu 
lated  to  keep  Mr.  Madison  busily  at  work,  with 
very  little  prospect  of  repairing  them.     For  a 
time  during  the  summer  of  1805,  every  one  at 
Washington,  except  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  fulminated  war  against  Spain.     On  reflec 
tion,  however,  the  President  thought  better  of 
it.     This  pacific  turn   took   place  about  Octo 
ber  23,  when  Randolph  was  writing  so  mildly 
to  Nicholson  and  Gallatin ;  and  it  was  caused 
ostensibly  by  the  war  news  in  Europe.     At  a 
cabinet  meeting  on  November  12,  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  accordingly  suggested  a  new  overture  to 
Bonaparte.    «  I  proposed,"  said  he  in  his  man 
uscript  memoranda,  "  we  should  address  our 
selves  to  France,  informing  her  it  was  a  last 
effort  at  amicable  settlement  with  Spain,  and 
offer  to  her  or  through  her  a  sum  of  money  for 
the  rights   of  Spain   east   of  Iberville,  say  the 
Floridas."     "It  was  agreed  unanimously,  and 


164  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  sum  to  be  offered  fixed  not  to  exceed  five 
million  dollars."  Not  only  was  it  distinctly 
understood  and  stated  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  own 
hand  at  the  time  that  this  money  "was  to  be 
the  exciting  motive  for  France,  to  whom  Spain 
is  in  arrears  for  subsidies,"  but  in  the  course  of 
the  next  week  dispatches  arrived  from  Paris 
containing  an  informal  offer  from  Talleyrand 
to  effect  the  object  desired  on  condition  of  a 
payment  of  seven  millions,  which  were  of  course 
to  go  to  France  ;  and  this  proposition  from  Tal 
leyrand  was  instantly  accepted  as  the  ground 
work  of  the  new  offer  of  five  millions. 

The  President  wished  to  send  instructions  on 
the  spot  authorizing  General  Armstrong,  our 
minister  at  Paris,  to  pledge  government  for  the 
first  instalment  of  two  millions,  but  was  over 
ruled,  and  it  was  decided  to  wait  an  appropria 
tion  from  Congress.  Then  the  question  rose, 
How  was  the  subject  to  begot  before  Congress? 
Secrecy  was  required,  for  in  this  whole  transac 
tion  everything  was  to  be  secret ;  but  to  con 
ceal  measures  which  must  be  confided  to  two 
hundred  men  was  not  a  light  task,  and  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  with  his  easy  temper,  forgot  that  John 
Randolph  was  not  so  easy-tempered  as  himself. 

At  length  the  President  arranged  the  plan. 
He  sent  to  Congress  his  annual  message,  con 
taining  a  very  warlike  review  of  the  Spanish 


THE    QUARREL.  165 

difficulties,  and  a  few  days  later  he  followed  up 
this  attack  by  sending  papers  showing,  among 
other  things,  that  trespasses  had  been  commit 
ted  in  the  Mississippi  territory  by  two  parties 
of  Spanish  subjects.  To  these  communications 
Congress  was  to  respond  in  a  series  of  belliger 
ent  resolutions,  drawn  by  the  President  himself. 
This  done,  he  was  to  send  a  secret  message  re 
questing  an  appropriation  of  two  millions  to 
wards  buying  Florida,  and  this  secret  message 
was  to  be  made  the  subject  of  a  confidential 
report  from  a  special  committee,  to  be  followed 
by  an  immediate  appropriation. 

In  due  time  the  matter  was  arranged.  Con 
gress  met  on  December  2.  Macon,  after  a  sharp 
contest  was  reflected  Speaker,  the  northern 
democrats  at  last  working  up  their  courage 
so  far  as  fairly  to  rebel  against  the  tyranny  of 
the  Virginian  group.  Randolph  and  Nicholson 
were  again  put  at  the  head  of  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee.  The  annual  message,  sound 
ing  war,  was  sent  in  on  December  3 ;  the  secret 
message,  inviting  Congress  to  make  provision 
for  a  settlement,  followed  on  December  6  :  both 
were  referred  to  committees  at  the  head  of 
which  Randolph  and  Nicholson  were  placed, 
and  the  President  restlessly  waited  for  the  echo 
of  his  words. 

The  echo  did  not  come.     On  the  contrary,  a 


166  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

series  of  lively  scenes  followed  such  as  no  comic 
dramatist,  neither  Sheridan  nor  Mark  Twain 
himself,  could  represent  with  all  the  humor  of 
the  reality.  Either  dramatist  or  novelist  would 
be  taxed  with  gross  exaggeration  who  should 
describe  the  events  of  this  winter  as  grotesquely 
as  they  occurred,  or  should  paint  the  queer 
figure  of  Randolph,  booted,  riding-whip  in  hand, 
flying  about  among  the  astonished  statesmen, 
and  flinging,  one  after  the  other,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
Mr.  Madison,  and  dozens  of  helpless  congress 
men  headlong  into  the  mire.  The  instant  Ran 
dolph  grasped  the  situation,  he  saw  that  Mr. 
Madison  had  converted  the  Spanish  dispute  into 
a  French  job.  He  put  the  President's  messages 
in  his  pocket.  Honestly  indignant  at  what  he 
considered  a  mean  attempt  to  bribe  one  nation 
to  join  in  robbing  another,  he  thought  the  whole 
transaction  only  worthy  of  Madison's  grovelling 
character.  All  his  prejudices  were  strengthened 
and  his  contempt  for  the  Secretary  was  turned 
into  a  passion.  Meanwhile,  he  had  found  that 
Mr.  Madison's  partisans  were  extremely  active, 
and  that  his  candidacy  was  to  be  prevented 
only  by  vigorous  resistance.  "  One  of  the  first 
causes  of  surprise,"  said  he,  "which  presented 
itself  to  me,  on  coming  to  the  seat  of  govern 
ment,  was  that  while  the  people  of  the  United 
States  thought  all  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  shores 


THE    QUARREL.  167 

of  the  Atlantic,  all  eyes  were  in  fact  fixed  on 
the  half-way  house  between  this  and  George 
town  ;  that  the  question  was  not  what  we  should 
do  with  France  or  Spain  or  England,  but  who 
should  be  the  next  President."  "I  came  here 
disposed  to  cooperate  with  the  government  in 
all  its  measures.  I  told  them  so."  Mr.  Madi 
son's  avowed  candidacy  and  the  disclosure  of 
the  two-million  job  cut  all  pacific  plans  short ; 
he  had  no  choice  but  to  interpose  ;  he  felt  him 
self  forced  into  a  dilemma. 

For  a  time  he  hesitated.  Calling  his  com 
mittee  together,  he  affected  to  see  nothing  in 
the  secret  message  that  could  be  construed  as 
a  request  for  money  to  purchase  Florida,  and 
a  majority  of  the  committee  joined  him  in  this 
view.  He  went  to  see  Mr.  Madison,  and,  ac 
cording  to  his  account,  the  Secretary  told  him 
that  France  was  the  great  obstacle  to  the  com 
promise  of  Spanish  difficulties ;  that  she  would 
not  permit  Spain  to  settle  her  disputes  with  us 
because  France  wanted  money,  and  we  must 
give  her  money  or  have  a  Spanish  and  French 
war,  —  all  which,  whether  Mr.  Madison  said  it 
or  not,  was  true,  but  put  a  terrible  weapon  into 
Randolph's  hands.  He  called  on  the  Presi 
dent,  always  affecting  total  ignorance  as  to  ex 
ecutive  plans,  and  professing  a  wish  to  cooper 
ate  with  the  government  so  far  as  his  principles 


' 

V 

168  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

and  judgment  would  permit ;  yet  when  Mr. 
Jefferson  explained  that  he  wanted  two  mil 
lions  to  buy  Florida,  Randolph  replied  without 
reserve  that  he  would  never  consent,  because 
the  money  had  not  been  asked  for  in  the  mes 
sage,  and  he  would  not  take  on  his  own  shoul 
ders  or  those  of  the  House  the  proper  responsi 
bility  of  the  Executive ;  but  even  if  the  money 
had  been  expressly  asked,  he  should  have  been 
averse  to  granting  it,  because,  after  the  fail 
ure  of  every  attempt  at  negotiation,  such  a 
step  would  disgrace  us  forever ;  because  France 
would  be  encouraged  to  blackmail  us  on  all  oc 
casions,  and  England  would  feel  contempt  for 
our  measures  and  attitude  towards  herself.  He 
did  not  mince  his  words. 

The  meeting  of  the  committee  and  the  in 
terviews  with  Mr.  Madison  and  the  President 
seem  all  to  have  taken  place  on  December  7  and 
8.  Randolph  now  waited  a  week,  and  then 
on  December  14  coolly  set  out  for  Baltimore, 
where  he  passed  another  week,  while  the  ad 
ministration  was  fuming  in  Washington,  unable 
to  call  the  committee  together.  On  December 
21  he  returned,  and  by  this  time  the  excite 
ment  had  waxed  high,  so  that  even  his  friend 
Nicholson  remonstrated.  The  committee  was 
instantly  called,  and  Randolph,  booted  and 
spurred,  as  he  had  ridden  from  Baltimore,  was 


1)'' 

THE    QUARREL.  169 

hurrying  to  the  committee-room,  when  he  was  * 
stopped  by  his  friend  Gallatin,  who  put  into 
his  hands  a  paper  headed  "Provision  for  the 
purchase  of  Florida."  Randolph  broke  out 
upon  him  with  a  strong  expression  of  disgust. 
He  declared  that  he  would  not  vote  a  shilling ; 
that  the  whole  proceeding  was  highly  disingen 
uous;  that  the  President  said  one  thing  in  pub 
lic,  another  in  private,  took  all  the  honor  to 
himself,  and  threw  all  the  odium  on  Congress; 
and  that  true  wisdom  and  cunning  were  utterly 
incompatible  in  the  management  of  great  af 
fairs.  Then,  striding  off  to  his  committee,  he 
put  his  opinions  into  something  more  than 
words.  Except  for  Mr.  Bidwell  of  Massachu 
setts,  the  committee  was  wholly  under  his  con 
trol,  and,  instead  of  reporting  the  two-million 
appropriation  proposed  by  Mr.  Bidwell,  the  ma 
jority  directed  Randolph  to  ask  the  Secretary 
of  War  what  force  was  needed  to  protect  the 
southwest  frontier.  When  the  Secretary's  an 
swer  was  received,  the  committee  met  again, 
and  a  second  time  Mr.  Bidwell  moved  the  reso 
lution  to  appropriate  the  two  millions.  Ran 
dolph  induced  the  committee  to  reject  the 
motion,  and  then  himself  drafted  a  warlike  re 
port,  which  closed  with  a  resolution  to  raise 
troops  for  the  defence  of  the  southwest  fron 
tiers  ufrom  Spanish  inroad  and  insult." 


170  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

He  seems  to  have  dragged  Nicholson  with 
him  by  main  force,  for  among  Judge  Nichol 
son's  papers  is  a  slip  of  Randolph's  handwrit 
ing,  carefully  preserved  and  indorsed  in  the 
Judge's  hand :  "  John  Randolph's  note  relative 
to  the  vote  of  two  millions  for  the  Florid  as. 
Last  of  December,  1805,  or  first  of  January, 
1806,  just  before  the  report  was  made." 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  I  am  still  too  unwell  to  turn  out.  My  bowels  are 
torn  all  to  pieces.  If  you  persist  in  voting  the  money, 
the  committee  will  alter  its  report.  Write  me  on  this 
subject,  and  tell  me  what  you  are  doing.  How  is 
Edward  to-day  ?  I  've  heard  from  St.  George.  He 
got  to  Norfolk  in  time  for  the  Intrepid,  on  the  24th, 
Tuesday.  She  was  loaded,  and  only  waiting  for  a  fair 
wind.  If  the  southeaster  of  Friday  did  not  drive  her 
back  into  the  Chesapeake,  she  has  by  this  time  crossed 
the  Gulf  Stream.  The  poor  fellow  was  very  seasick 
going  down  the  bay.  Yours  truly,  J.  R. 

"MR.  NICHOLSON  of  Maryland." 

Nicholson  did  not  persist,  and  accordingly 
the  report  as  Randolph  drafted  it  was  adopted 
by  the  aid  of  federalist  votes  in  committee,  and 
was  presented  to  the  House  on  January  3, 
1806.  This  serio-comic  drama  had  now  con 
sumed  a  month,  during  which  time  Randolph 
was  gravely  undertaking  to  govern  the  country 


THE    QUARREL.  171 

in  spite  of  itself,  and,  by  tactics  of  delay,  resist 
ance,  and  dictation,  to  defeat  the  will  of  the 
President  and  the  party.  He  had  succeeded  in 
checking  the  Yazoo  compromise  by  like  tactics, 
and  he  did  not  altogether  fail  in  this  new 
struggle,  although  no  sooner  had  the  House  re 
covered  possession  of  the  subject  than  it  went 
into  secret  session,  flung  Randolph's  report 
aside,  and  took  up  in  its  place  the  President's 
two-million  appropriation.  Randolph,  whose 
temper  never  allowed  him  to  play  a  losing 
game  with  coolness  or  skill,  threw  himself  with 
a  sort  of  fury  into  the  struggle  over  his  report, 
and  day  after  day  for  a  week  occupied  the  floor 
in  committee  of  the  whole  House.  Beaten  in 
committee,  and  forced  to  see  the  appropriation 
reported,  he  kept  up  his  opposition  at  every 
stage  in  its  passage,  while  the  federalists  smiled 
approval,  and  the  northern  democrats  sulkily 
voted  as  they  were  bidden.  On  January  11 
Randolph's  warlike  report  was  rejected  by  a 
vote  of  72  to  58,  and  on  the  14th  the  House 
adopted  Bidwell's  resolution  by  a  vote  of  77 
to  54,  the  federalists  and  twenty-seven  republi 
cans  voting  with  Randolph  against  the  admin 
istration. 

At  length  the  House  reopened  its  doors,  and 
the  world  asked  curiously  what  had  happened 
in  the  long  conclave.  Randolph  was  not  the 


172  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

man  to  let  himself  be  overridden  in  secret. 
His  method  of  attack  was  always  the  same :  to 
spring  suddenly,  violently,  straight  at  the  face 
of  his  opponent  was  his  invariable  rule;  and 
in  this  sort  of  rough-and-tumble  he  had  no 
equal.  In  the  white  heat  of  passionate  rhet 
oric  he  could  gouge  and  kick,  bite  off  an  ear 
or  a  nose,  or  hit  below  the  waist ;  and  he  did 
it  with  astonishing  quickness  and  persistence. 
No  public  man  in  America  ever  rivaled  him  in 
these  respects ;  it  was  his  unapproached  talent. 
With  a  frail  figure,  wretched  health,  and  de 
spondent  temperament,  he  could  stand  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  two  or  three  hours  at  a  time, 
day  after  day,  and  with  violent  gesticulation  and 
piercing  voice  pour  out  a  continuous  stream  of 
vituperation  in  well-chosen  language  and  with 
sparkling  illustration.  In  the  spring  of  1806 
he  was  new  in  the  role,  and  still  wore  some 
of  the  shreds  and  patches  of  official  dignity. 
The  world  was  scandalized  or  amused,  ac 
cording  to  its  politics,  at  seeing  the  Presi 
dent's  cousin  and  friend,  Virginian  of  Virgin 
ians,  spoiled  child  of  liis  party  and  recognized 
mouthpiece  of  the  administration,  a  partisan 
railer  against  federalism,  whose  bitter  tongue 
had  for  years  spit  defiance  upon  everything 
smacking  of  federal  principles,  now  suddenly 
turn  about  and  rail  at  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr. 


THE    QUARREL.  173 

Madison,  as  he  had  railed  at  Washington  and 
John  Adams,  while  he  voted  steadily  with  fed 
eralists  and  exercised  diabolical  ingenuity  to 
thwart  and  defeat  the  measures  of  his  friends. 
His  melodramatic  success  was  largely  one  of 
scandal,  but  there  was  in  it  also  an  element  of 
respectability.  To  defy  power  requires  cour 
age,  and  although  Randolph's  audacity  too 
closely  resembled  mere  bad  temper,  yet  it  was 
rare,  and  to  the  uncritical  public,  admirable. 
Moreover,  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  the  in 
fernal  ability  with  which  he  caught  and  tor 
tured  his  victims;  and  finally,  although  tho 
question  of  fact  was  unfortunately  little  to  the 
purpose  even  then,  and  now  only  interests 
mere  fumblers  of  historical  detail,  it  is  quite 
certain  that  in  his  assertions  he  was  essentially 
correct,  and  that  the  sting  of  his  criticisms  lay 
in  their  truth. 

On  March  5,  1806,  he  began  his  long  public 
career  of  opposition.  Mr.  Gregg  of  Pennsyl 
vania  had  offered  a  resolution  for  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  British  goods,  in  retaliation 
for  Mr.  Pitt's  attack  on  our  carrying  trade. 
Mr.  Crowninshield  of  Salem  supported  the 
measure  in  a  speech  strongly  warlike  in  tone, 
which  certainly  promised  more  than  was  after 
wards  achieved  as  a  result  of  our  future  con 
quests,  besides  suggesting  confiscation  of  Brit- 


174  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ish  debts  to  the  amount  of  forty  million  dollars. 
Mr.  Crowninshield  was  a  New  England  demo 
crat,  a  thorough  supporter  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  a 
"  Yazoo  man,"  who  had  lately  allowed  himself 
to  be  made  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  declined 
to  serve.  On  all  these  accounts  he  was  an  ob 
ject  of  hatred  to  Randolph,  who  rose  when  he 
sat  down. 

First  he  gave  Mr.  Crowninshield  a  stinging 
blow  in  the  face :  "  I  am  not  surprised  to  hear 
men  advocate  these  wild  opinions,  to  see  them, 
goaded  on  by  a  spirit  of  mercantile  avarice, 
straining  their  feeble  strength  to  excite  the 
nation  to  war,  when  they  have  reached  this 
stage  of  infatuation  that  we  are  an  overmatch 
for  Great  Britain  on  the  ocean.  It  is  mere 
waste  of  time  to  reason  with  such  persons. 
They  do  not  deserve  anything  like  serious 
refutation.  The  proper  arguments  for  such 
statesmen  are  a  strait- waistcoat,  a  dark  room, 
water  gruel,  and  depletion."  Then,  after  a 
few  words  on  the  dispute  with  England,  adopt 
ing  the  extreme  ground  that  the  carrying  trade 
was  a  mushroom,  a  fungus,  not  worth  a  contest, 
an  unfair  trade,  to  protect  which  we  were  to  be 
plunged  into  war  by  the  spirit  of  avaricious 
traffic,  he  hit  one  of  his  striking  illustrations : 
"  What !  shall  this  great  mammoth  of  the  Amer 
ican  forest  leave  his  native  element,  and  plunge 


THE    QUARREL.  175 

into  the  water  in  a  mad  contest  with  the  shark ! 
Let  him  beware  that  his  proboscis  is  not  bitten 
off  in  the  engagement.  Let  him  stay  on  shore, 
and  not  be  excited  by  the  mussels  and  periwin 
kles  on  the  strand."  Then  he  touched  on  the 
policy  of  throwing  weight  into  the  scale  of 
France  against  England,  and  on  the  effects  of 
foreign  war  in  subverting  the  Constitution,  grad 
ually  coming  round  to  the  proposed  confiscation 
of  British  debts  in  order  to  strike  another  ugly 
blow  at  Mr.  Crowninshield's  face :  "  God  help 
you,  if  these  are  your  ways  and  means  for  car 
rying  on  war  ;  if  your  finances  are  in  the  hands 
of  such  a  chancellor  of  the  exchequer!  Be 
cause  a  man  can  take  an  observation  and  keep 
a  log-book  and  a  reckoning,  can  navigate  a  cock 
boat  to  the  West  Indies  or  the  East,  shall  he 
aspire  to  navigate  the  great  vessel  of  state,  — 
to  stand  at  the  helm  of  public  councils  ?  Ne 
sutor  ultra  crepidam  !  " 

This,  however,  was  mere  by-play ;  it  was  not 
Crowninshield  at  whom  his  harangue  was  aimed, 
but  far  more  important  game,  and  his  audience 
could  see  him  approach  nearer  and  .nearer  his 
real  victim,  as  though  he  were  himself  drawn  on 
against  his  own  judgment  by  the  fascination  of 
hatred. 

"  You  may  go  to  war  for  this  excrescence  of  the 
carrying  trade,  and  make  peace  at  the  expense  of  the 


176  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Constitution ;  your  Executive  will  lord  it  over  you." 
"  I  have  before  protested,  and  I  again  protest,  against 
secret,  irresponsible,  overruling  influence.  The  first 
question  I  asked  when  I  saw  the  gentleman's  resolu 
tion  was,  *  Is  this  a  measure  of  the  Cabinet  ? '  Not 
of  an  open,  declared  Cabinet,  but  of  an  invisible, 
inscrutable,  unconstitutional  Cabinet,  without  re 
sponsibility,  unknown  to  the  Constitution !  I  speak 
of  back-stairs  influence,  —  of  men  who  bring  mes 
sages  to  this  House,  which,  although  they  do  not  ap 
pear  on  its  journals,  govern  its  decisions.  Sir,  the 
first  question  I  asked  on  the  subject  of  British  rela 
tions  was,  'What  is  the  opinion  of  the  Cabinet?' 
*  What  measures  will  they  recommend  to  Congress  ?  ' 
Well  knowing  that,  whatever  measures  we  might 
take,  they  must  execute  them,  and  therefore  that  we 
should  have  their  opinion  on  the  subject.  My  an 
swer  was,  and  from  a  Cabinet  minister,  too,  *  There 
is  no  longer  any  Cabinet'  Subsequent  circumstances, 
sir,  have  given  me  a  personal  knowledge  of  the  fact." 

This  attempt  to  drag  Mr.  Gallatin  into  the 
business  of  discrediting  the  President  and  Sec 
retary  of  State  was  a  serious  if  not  a  fatal 
mistake ;  but  Randolph  was  already  out  of  his 
head.  After  alienating  Gallatin,  he  insulted 
the  whole  House,  exasperating  poor  Sloan  of 
New  Jersey  as  he  had  already  embittered 
Crowninsbield :  "  Like  true  political  quacks, 
you  deal  only  in  hand-bills  and  nostrums.  Sir 
I  blush  to  see  the  record  of  our  proceedings 


THE  QUARREL.  177 

they  resemble  nothing  but  the  advertisements 
of  patent  medicines.  Here  you  have  '  the  worm- 
destroying  lozenges  ; '  there  4  Church's  cough- 
drops  ; '  and,  to  crown  the  whole,  '  Sloan's  veg 
etable  specific,'  an  infallible  remedy  for  all 
nervous  disorders  and  vertigos  of  brain-sick  pol 
iticians, —  each  man  earnestly  adjuring  you  to 
give  his  medicine  only  a  fair  trial."  This  done, 
he  suddenly  shot  another  arrow  within  the  sacred 
circle  of  the  administration  into  the  secret  and 
mysterious  Spanish  embroglio:  "And  where 
,are  you  going  to  send  your  political  panacea, 
resolutions  and  hand-bills  excepted,  your  sole 
arcanum  of  government,  your  king  cure-all? 
To  Madrid  ?  No !  You  are  not  such  quacks 
as  not  to  know  where  the  shoe  pinches.  To 
Paris  !  "  "  After  shrinking  from  the  Spanish 
jackal,  do  you  presume  to  bully  the  British 
lion  ?  "  Another  foul  blow,  for  his  lips  were 
sealed  on  what  had  been  done  in  secret  session  ; 
but  it  brought  him  at  last  to  his  end.  "  Unde 
derivatur?  Whence  comes  it,"  this  non-im 
portation  bantling  ?  "  Some  time  ago,  a  book 
was  laid  on  our  tables,  which,  like  some  other 
bantlings,  did  not  bear  the  name  of  its  father." 
This  was  Mr.  Madison's  well-known  examina 
tion  into  the  British  doctrine  of  neutral  trade. 
"If,  sir,  I  were  the  foe,  as  I  trust  I  am  the 
friend,  of  this  nation,  I  would  exclaim,  '  Oh 
12 


178  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

that  mine  enemy  would  write  a  book  ! '  At  the 
very  outset,  in  the  very  first  page,  I  believe, 
there  is  a  complete  abandonment  of  the  prin 
ciple  in  dispute.  Has  any  gentleman  got  the 
work?"  Then  he  read  a  few  lines  from  the 
book,  and  flung  it  aside.  Again  sweeping  away 
over  a  long,  discursive  path  of  unconnected  dis 
cussion  about  Spain,  France  and  England,  New 
Orleans,  Holland,  and  a  variety  of  lesser  topics, 
including  remarks  made  by  "  the  greatest  man 
whom  I  ever  knew,  the  immortal  author  of 
the  letters  of  Curtius,"  he  closed  by  another 
challenge  to  the  administration :  — 

"  Until  I  came  into  the  House  this  morning  I  had 
been  stretched  on  a  sick-bed ;  but  when  I  behold  the 
affairs  of  this  nation,  instead  of  being  where  I  hoped 
and  the  people  believed  they  were,  in  the  hands  of 
responsible  men,  committed  to  Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry, 
to  the  refuse  of  the  retail  trade  of  politics,  I  do 
feel,  I  cannot  help  feeling,  the  most  deep  and  seri 
ous  concern.  If  the  executive  government  would 
step  forward  and  say,  '  Such  is  our  plan,  such  is  our 
opinion,  and  such  are  our  reasons  in  support  of  it,' 
I  would  meet  it  fairly,  would  openly  oppose  or  pledge 
myself  to  support  it.  ...  I  know,  sir,  that  we  may 
say  and  do  say  that  we  are  independent  (would  it 
were  true!),  as  free  to  give  a  direction  to  the  Execu 
tive  as  to  receive  it  from  him  ;  but  do  what  you  will, 
foreign  relations,  every  measure  short  of  war,  and 
even  the  course  of  hostilities  depend  upon  him.  He 


THE    QUARREL.  179 

stands  at  the  helm,  and  must  guide  the  vessel  of  state. 
You  give  him  money  to  buy  Florida,  and  he  pur 
chases  Louisiana.  You  may  furnish  means  ;  the  ap 
plication  of  those  means  rests  with  him.  Let  not 
the  master  and  mate  go  below  when  the  ship  is  in 
distress,  and  throw  the  responsibility  upon  the  cook 
and  the  cabin-boy  !  " 

The  next  day  he  returned  to  the  attack,  and 
assailed  Mr.  Madison's  pamphlet  with  a  sort  of 
fury.  "  No,  sir ;  whatever  others  may  think,  I 
have  no  ambition  to  have  written  such  a  book  as 
this.  I  abjure  the  very  idea."  He  called  it  "  a 
miserable  card-house  of  an  argument,  which  the 
first  puff  of  wind  must  demolish."  "  Sir,  I  have 
tried,  but  I  could  not  get  through  this  work.  I 
found  it  so  wiredrawn,  the  thread  so  fine,  that 
I  could  neither  see  nor  feel  it;  such  a  tangled 
cobweb  of  contradictions  that  I  was  obliged  to 
give  it  up."  Flinging  it  violently  upon  the 
floor,  as  though  it  were  only  fit  to  be  trampled 
on,  he  maintained  that  England  was  justifiable 
in  all  her  measures,  even  in  impressing  our  sea 
men  ;  impressment  was  a  necessity  of  war.  He 
attacked  the  navy  department  for  waste.  He 
affirmed  that  Great  Britain  was  the  sole  bul 
wark  of  the  human  race. 

This  was  the  man  who,  barely  a  year  before, 
had  been  crying  out  that  the  navy  should  be 
employed  to  blow  the  British  frigates  out  of 


180  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

water,  and  who  wished  to  see  our  officers  and 
seamen  lying  yard-arm  and  yard-arm  in  the 
attack.  "  Though  we  lost  all,  we  should  not 
lose  our  national  honor."  Within  the  year 
Great  Britain  had  made  more  than  one  addi 
tional  onslaught  upon  our  national  honor,  but 
Randolph  would  now  listen  to  no  thought  of 
war,  and  derided  the  use  of  our  navy.  After 
all,  there  was  much  to  be  said  on  this  side  of 
the  question,  and,  as  events  proved,  had  Mr. 
Jefferson  followed  his  first  impulse  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1805,  and  seized  the  moment  for  going 
to  war  with  Spain  and  France,  he  might  per 
haps  have  checkmated  the  aggressive  tories  in 
England,  prevented  the  war  of  1812,  and  proba 
bly  saved  himself,  his  successor,  and  his  party 
from  being  driven  into  a  false  position  in  regard 
to  the  liberties  of  Europe  and  the  states'  rights 
of  America.  Randolph,  however,  did  not  advo 
cate  this  policy  now,  when  he  might  have  done 
so  with  effect.  Repeatedly  and  emphatically 
he  declared  himself  opposed  to  war  with  Spain 
or  France  or  any  other  nation.  "  There  was 
no  party  of  men  in  this  House  or  elsewhere  in 
favor  of  war."  "  We  were  not  for  war ;  we 
were  for  peace."  His  only  recommendation, 
repeated  over  and  over  again,  was  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary,  as  coming  from  his  mouth, 
that  human  wit  could  have  imagined :  — 


THE   QUARREL.  181 

"  I  can  readily  tell  gentlemen  what  I  will  not  do.  I 
will  not  propitiate  any  foreign  nation  with  money.  I 
will  not  launch  into  a  naval  war  with  Great  Britain. 
...  I  will  send  her  money,  sir,  on  no  pretext  what 
ever,  much  less  on  pretence  of  buying  Labrador  or 
Botany  Bay,  when  my  real  object  was  to  secure  limits 
which  she  formally  acknowledged  at  the  peace  of  1783. 
I  go  farther.  I  would,  if  anything,  have  laid  an  em 
bargo.  This  would  have  got  our  property  home,  and 
our  adversary's  into  our  power.  If  there  is  any  wis 
dom  left  among  us,  the  first  step  towards  hostility 
will  always  be  an  embargo.  In  six  months  all  your 
mercantile  megrims  would  vanish.  As  to  us,  although 
it  would  cut  deep,  we  can  stand  it."  "  What  would 
have  been  a  firm  measure  ?  An  embargo.  That  would 
have  gone  to  the  root  of  the  evil." 

With  what  interest  and  amusement,  with 
what  fury  and  unconcealed  mortification,  such 
speeches  were  listened  to  by  the  House  may  be 
easily  conceived.  That  they  were  desultory, 
and  skipped  from  subject  to  subject  with  little 
apparent  connection,  was  an  additional  charm. 
No  one  could  tell  where  or  when  his  sudden 
blows  were  to  fall.  He  dwelt  on  nothing  long 
enough  to  be  tedious.  He  passed  hither  and 
thither,  uttering  sense  and  nonsense,  but  always 
straining  every  nerve  to  throw  contempt  on 
Mr.  Madison  and  his  supporters.  In  his  next 
speech  he  avowed  himself  to  be  no  longer  a 
republican  ;  he  belonged  to  the  third  party,  the 


182  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

quiddists  or  quids,  being  that  tertium  quid,  that 
"  third  something,"  which  had  no  name,  bat  was 
really  an  anti-Madison  movement,  an  "anti- 
Yazoo  "  combination.  When  at  last,  on  April 
5,  1806,  he  dragged  the  Spanish  embroglio  be 
fore  the  open  House  under  pretext  of  correcting 
the  secret  journal,  the  personal  bias  of  his  oppo 
sition  became  still  more  strongly  marked.  He 
told  how  Mr.  Madison  had  said  to  him  that 
France  wanted  money,  and  we  must  give  her 
money.  "  I  considered  it  a  base  prostration  of 
the  national  character  to  excite  one  nation  by 
money  to  bully  another  nation  out  of  its  prop 
erty,  and  from  that  moment  and  to  the  last 
moment  of  my  life  my  confidence  in  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  man  entertaining  those  sentiments 
died,  never  to  live  again."  No  answer  to  this 
charge  was  ever  made ;  no  satisfactory  answer 
was  possible.  Mr.  MadisoA's  counter-statement, 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  third  volume  of  his 
printed  correspondence  (p.  104),  is  equivocal 
and  disingenuous.  The  "  two  million  "  trans 
action  was  one  of  the  least  defensible  acts  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  administration ;  but  this  does 
not  affect  the  fact  that  Randolph  was  merely 
using  it  and  the  private  knowledge  which  Mr. 
Madison's  confidence  had  given  him,  in  order  to 
carry  out  an  attempt  at  political  assassination. 
His  deepest  passions  were  not  roused  by  the 


THE   QUARREL.  183 

"  two  million  job,"  but  by  Madison's  overpow 
ering  influence.  From  the  first  this  domination 
had  galled  him :  in  the  Yazoo  contest  it  strove 
to  defeat  him  on  his  own  ground ;  it  crowed 
over  him  on  his  own  dung-hill;  and  he  had 
fought  and  beaten  it  with  the  desperate  cour 
age  of  his  Virginian  game-cocks.  Even  at  this 
moment  he  was  proclaiming  the  fact  in  his 
speeches.  "  The  whole  executive  government 
has  had  a  bias  to  the  Yazoo  interest  ever  since 
I  had  a  seat  here.  This  is  the  original  sin 
which  has  created  all  the  mischiefs  which  gen 
tlemen  pretend  to  throw  on  the  impressment  of 
our  seamen  and  God  knows  what !  This  is  the 
cause  of  those  mischiefs  which  existed  years 
ago."  "  The  Yazoo  business  is  the  beginning 
and  the  end,  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  our  al 
phabet."  Mr.  Madison's  influence  had  been 
brought  into  the  House  and  pitted  against  his 
own ;  he  was  now  retaliating  by  an  attack  on 
Mr.  Madison  before  the  country.  A  rumor  ran 
through  Washington  that  he  meant  to  impeach 
Madison  for  attempting  to  get  the  two  mil 
lions  to  Europe  before  receiving  authority 
from  Congress,  and  he  did  in  fact  make  a  des 
perate  attempt  to  drag  Gallatin  into  support 
of  this  charge. 

Unluckily  for  Randolph,  it  was  not  directly 
Mr.  Madison,  but  the  President,  who  had  in- 


184  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

vented  and  carried  out  the  whole  "two-mil 
lion  "  scheme  down  to  its  smallest  detail.  All 
the  Cabinet  knew  this  fact,  and  the  President's 
conscience  was  of  course  active  in  stimulat 
ing  him  to  protect  his  Secretary.  The  party 
could  not  let  Mr.  Madison  perish  as  a  martyr 
before  the  altar  of  Jeffersonian  popularity.  To 
sustain  him  was  no  matter  of  choice,  but  a 
necessity.  The  northern  democrats  never  fal 
tered  in  their  discipline,  and  the  southern  re 
publicans  were  slowly  whipped  back  to  their 
ranks.  Randolph's  wild  speeches  between 
March  5  and  April  21,  1806,  were  fatal  only 
to  himself.  In  his  struggle  against  the  admin 
istration  on  the  two-million  policy,  early  in 
January,  he  carried  with  him  some  twenty- 
seven  republicans,  including  a  majority  of  the 
Virginia  delegation  ;  but  his  withdrawal  from 
the  party  in  April,  and  his  unexpected  devotion 
to  England,  left  these  followers  in  an  awkward 
place,  where  little  could  be  done  by  resisting 
Madison  within  the  party,  and  still  less  by  fol 
lowing  Randolph  into  opposition.  One  by  one 
they  fell  away  from  their  eccentric  and  extrava 
gant  chief. 

Meanwhile,  Randolph  showed  an  astonish 
ing  genius  for  destroying  his  own  influence  and 
strengthening  his  opponents.  He  obstructed 
the  business  of  the  House,  and  then  sneered 


THE   QUARREL.  185 

at  the  majority  for  the  condition  their  affairs 
were  in.  He  brought  up  the  navy  appropri 
ations  with  a  blank  for  contingent  expenses, 
and  told  the  House  to  fill  it  up  as  they  pleased ; 
their  decision  would  be  no  check  on  the  ex 
penditure  ;  whether  they  provided  the  money 
or  not,  the  department  would  spend  it.  He 
kept  back  the  appropriation  bills  till  late  in 
the  session,  and  then  rose  to  inform  the  House, 
with  a  contemptuous  smile,  that  All  Fools'  Day 
was  at  hand,  when,  if  they  did  not  pass  the  bill 
for  the  support  of  government,  they  would  look 
like  fools  indeed.  He  made  the  most  troub 
lesome  attempts  to  abolish  taxes.  He  had 
another  bout  with  the  Yazoo  men,  and  man 
aged  to  procure  the  rejection  of  their  bill. 
He  tore  the  mask  of  secrecy  from  the  Spanish 
negotiation,  and  succeeded  in  defeating  all 
chance  of  its  success.  He  even  irritated  Na 
poleon  against  the  government,  and  helped 
to  confirm  both  France  and  Great  Britain  in 
their  meditated  aggressions.  His  vehemence 
of  manner  was  equal  to  the  violence  of  his  lan 
guage  and  acts.  One  of  the  members,  Sloan, 
of  the  "  vegetable  specific,"  described  him  on 
the  floor  of  the  House  inviting  the  attacks  of  his 
enemies,  and  representing  them  as  crying  out, 
"  Away  with  him !  Away  with  him  !  Clap  on 
the  crown  of  thorns !  "  (clapping  his  hand  on 


186  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  top  of  his  head).  "  Crucify  him !  Crucify 
him !  "  (whirling  his  arm  about).  On  another 
occasion,  it  seems,  he  shook  his  fist  at  a  mem 
ber,  and  not  only  ordered  him  to  sit  down,  but 
to  go  down  the  back-stairs.  Finally  he  charged 
Mr.  Findley  of  Pennsylvania,  once  his  "  ven 
erable  friend  "  and  "  political  father,"  not  only 
with  "mumbling,"  but  with  being  an  old 
toothless  driveller,  in  his  second  dotage. 

Yet  in  his  most  violent  passions  he  kept  his 
coolness  of  head,  and  knew  well  how  to  subor 
dinate  an  enmity  to  an  interest.  Even  while 
most  bitterly  charging  Mr.  Madison  with  sub 
servience  to  France,  and  proving  his  charge  by 
betraying  private  conversations,  as  no  man  of 
true  self-respect  could  have  done,  he  was  him 
self  helping  the  Secretary  to  put  the  country 
on  its  knees  before  Napoleon  in  an  attitude 
more  humiliating  than  the  United  States  had 
ever  yet  assumed  towards  a  foreign  power. 
In  the  session  of  1804-5  Congress,  out  of  defer 
ence  to  France  and  to  the  obligations  of  inter 
national  law,  passed  an  act  to  regulate  the 
trade  with  revolted  St.  Domingo,  and  to  re 
strain  it  within  proper  and  peaceful  limits.  In 
the  summer  of  1805  Napoleon,  still  unsatisfied, 
issued  an  order  that  the  United  States  govern 
ment  should  stop  the  trade  altogether.  His 
peremptory  note  on  the  subject  to  Talleyrand, 


THE    QUARREL.  187 

dated  August  10,  1805,  is  curious,  not  only  as 
an  example  of  his  extraordinary  ignorance,  but 
still  more  as  a  specimen  of  his  emphasis.  "  I 
want  you  to  send  a  note  to  the  American  min 
ister  here,  .  .  .  and  declare  to  him  that  it  is 
time  to  stop  this."  M.  Talleyrand  obeyed.  Gen 
eral  Turreau,  also,  his  minister  at  Washington, 
notified  Mr.  Madison  that  "  this  system  must 
continue  no  longer  (ne  pourrait  pas  durer)" 
These  letters  were  called  for  and  printed, 
while  Congress,  in  December,  1805,  and  Jan 
uary,  1806,  were  considering  a  bill  introduced 
by  Senator  Logan  of  Pennsylvania  to  prohibit 
the  trade  in  question.  That  Logan's  bill  was  in 
reality  a  subordinate  but  essential  part  of  the 
two-million  scheme,  is  self-evident;  but  Ran 
dolph,  not  Mr.  Jefferson  or  Mr.  Madison,  is 
the  subject  of  this  story,  and  it  is  interesting 
to  ask  whether  Randolph  denounced  the  bill 
and  exposed  the  shame  to  which  the  adminis 
tration  was  privy. 

To  prohibit  the  trade  with  St.  Domingo  was 
to  make  the  United  States  government  a  party 
in  the  attempt  to  reestablish  French  influence 
in  the  American  hemisphere;  it  was  to  help 
Napoleon  in  his  plan  of  reenslaving  the  negroes 
whom  France  had  declared  free  ;  it  was  to  en 
force  a  French  sham  blockade  by  our  legisla 
tion,  to  bolster  up  a  mere  pretence  of  French 


188  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

i occupancy,  to  throw  the  whole  trade  of  this 
Irich  market  into  the  hands  of  England,  and  to 
[endanger  the  life  of  every  American  in  St.  Do- 
'mingo.  Mr.  Madison  had  resisted  the  measure 
as  long  as  he  dared.  He  now  yielded,  partly 
to  the  mandate  of  Napoleon,  partly  to  the 
outcry  of  the  southern  slave-holders,  who  were 
wild  with  fear  of  the  revolted  Haytian  ne 
groes,  and  who  seized  with  avidity  upon  the 
bill.  They  forced  it  through  the  House  with 
unreasoning  arrogance,  at  the  time  when  Ran 
dolph,  an  ami  des  noirs,  a  hater  of  slavery, 
was  angriest  at  the  attempt  of  Mr.  Madison  to 
bribe  the  French  government  with  five  million 
dollars.  This  new  proof  of  the  "  base  prostra 
tion  of  the  national  character  "  inherent  in  the 
Florida  negotiation  might  have  been  a  terrible 
weapon  in  Randolph's  hands  had  he  chosen  to 
use  it,  but,  so  far  from  using  it,  he  imitated 
Mr.  Madison's  own  conduct :  he  hid  himself 
from  sight.  "  I  voted  in  favor  of  it,"  said  he 
in  1817.  He  was  mistaken.  He  did  not  vote 
at  all ;  he  gave  the  bill  his  silent  support.  "  I 
voted  in  favor  of  it  because  I  considered  St. 
Domingo  as  an  anomaly  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  and  I  considered  it  my  duty,  .  .  . 
as  a  representative  above  all  of  the  southern 
portion  of  the  United  States,  to  leave  nothing 
undone  which  could  possibly  give  to  the  white 


THE    QUARREL.  189 

population  in  that  island  an  ascendency  over 
the  blacks."  For  such  a  purpose  he  could 
consent  to  use  the  powers  of  centralization  in 
defiance  of  international  law,  in  contempt  of 
the  rights  of  northern  merchants,  and  in  for- 
getfulness  of  constitutional  theories ;  but  if  he 
held  the  arbitrary  prohibition  of  trade  with 
St.  Domingo  to  be  constitutional,  how  was  he 
afterwards  to  denounce  as  unconstitutional  ei 
ther  the  embargo,  or  the  non-intercourse,  or  the 
law  abolishing  the  coast- wise  slave-trade  ? 

Thus,  at  length,  on  April  21,  1806,  this 
extraordinary  session  closed,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  the  history  of  our  government. 
Randolph  was  left  a  political  wreck  ;  the  true 
Virginian  school  of  politics  was  forever  ruined  ; 
Macon  was  soon  driven  from  the  speakership, 
and  Nicholson  forced  on  to  the  bench ;  Gallatin 
was  paralyzed  ;  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison, 
and  ultimately  Mr.  Monroe  were  thrown  into 
the  hands  of  the  northern  democrats,  whose 
loose  political  morality  henceforward  found  no 
check ;  the  spirit  of  intrigue  was  stimulated, 
and  the  most  honest  and  earnest  convictions  of 
the  republican  party  were  discredited.  That 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  steadily  drifted  away  from 
his  original  theories  was  true,  and  that  his 
party,  like  all  other  parties,  was  more  or  less 
sorrupted  by  power  can  hardly  be  denied  ;  but 


190  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Randolph's  leadership  aggravated  these  evils, 
deprived  him  and  the  better  southern  repub 
licans  of  all  influence  for  good,  and  left  corrupt 
factions  to  dispute  with  each  other  the  posses 
sion  of  merely  selfish  power. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MONKOE  AND   THE   SMITHS. 

OF  all  republican  factions  the  most  mischiev 
ous  was  that  which  gathered  round  Robert 
Smith,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  his 
brother,  Samuel  Smith,  the  senator  from  Mary 
land.  The  latter,  during  this  turbulent  session, 
had  contributed  not  a  little  to  vex  and  worry 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison  by  an  attempt 
to  force  himself  upon  them  as  a  special  envoy 
to  London  to  aid  or  supplant  Monroe  in  his  dif 
ficult  negotiations  on  the  neutral  trade.  The 
first  effect  of  Randolph's  violent  outburst  was 
to  drive  General  Smith  back  to  discipline  ;  the 
remote  result  was  to  give  him  more  influence 
than  before.  As  Smith  wrote  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  on  April  1, 1806 :  — 

"  The  question  was  simply,  Buy  or  Fight !  Both 
Houses  by  great  majorities  said,  Buy  !  The  manner 
of  buying  appears  a  little  disagreeable.  Men  will 
differ  even  on  that  subject.  Politicians  will  believe 
it  perfectly  honest  to  induce  France,  '  by  money/  to 
coerce  Spain  to  sell  that  which  she  has  absolutely 
declared  was  her  own  property,  and  from  which  she 


192  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

would  not  part.  Mr.  R.  expects  that  this  public  ex 
plosion  of  our  views  and  plans  will  render  abortive 
this  negotiation,  and  make  the  Executive  and  poor 
little  Madison  unpopular.  Against  this  last  he  vents 
his  spleen.  However,  he  spares  nobody,  and  by  this 
conduct  has  compelled  all  to  rally  round  the  Execu 
tive  for  their  own  preservation.  From  the  Potomac, 
north  and  east,  the  members  adhere  to  the  President ; 
south,  they  fall  off  daily  from  their  allegiance." 

Although  Mr.  Jefferson  irritated  the  Smiths 
by  passing  directly  over  their  heads  and  taking 
another  Maryland  man,  the  federalist  lawyer 
William  Pinkney,  as  his  new  minister  to  Eng 
land,  General  Smith  could  now  only  submit  in 
silence  to  this  sharp  rebuke,  the  more  marked 
because  the  new  appointment  was  not  laid 
before  the  Cabinet  or  discussed  in  advance. 
Randolph's  revolt  had  instantly  stiffened  the 
party  discipline,  and  the  Smiths  were  forced 
to  wait. 

The  Smiths,  however,  knew  when  to  wait 
and  when  to  intrigue,  while  Randolph  knew 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  To  do  him  jus 
tice,  he  was  a  wretched  intriguer  and  no  office- 
seeker.  He  and  his  friends  were  remarkably 
free  from  the  meaner  ambitions  of  political  life; 
they  neither  begged  patronage  nor  asked  for 
money,  nor  did  they  tolerate  jobbery  in  any 
form.  Mr.  Madison  always  believed  otherwise, 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.  193 

and  his  followers  openly  charged  Randolph  with 
having  sought  an  office,  and  with  having  per 
secuted  Mr.  Madison  for  refusing  it;  but  this 
story  merely  marked  a  point  in  the  quarrel ;  it 
was  a  symptom,  not  a  cause.  Certain  members 
of  Congress  urged  Randolph's  appointment  as 
Minister  to  England,  to  fill  the  office  which 
Monroe  held,  which  General  Smith  wanted,  and 
which  William  Pinkney  got ;  but  Randolph 
himself  did  not  know  of  the  suggestion  or  hear 
of  the  President's  refusal  until  after  the  whole 
transaction  was  closed.  Then  he  was  told  of 
the  matter  by  the  member  who  had  been  most 
active  in  it,  and,  according  to  an  account  pub 
lished  in  the  "  Richmond  Enquirer,"  evidently 
by  himself,  he  replied,  "  If  I  did  not  know  you 
so  well,  I  should  suppose  you  were  sent  to  me 
by  the  Executive  to  buy  off  my  opposition,  which 
they  fancy  must  take  place  from  the  course  they 
pursue."  For  years  Randolph  had  been  steadily 
coming  nearer  a  quarrel  with  his  party  leaders : 
he  was  striving,  as  he  believed,  to  drag  them 
back  to  their  purer  principles  of  1800;  they 
were  pleasantly  drifting  with  the  easy  current 
of  power.  The  rupture  was  a  mere  matter  of 
time.  Randolph's  political  isolation  was  in  any 
case  inevitable,  if  Madison  were  to  fill  the  ex 
ecutive  chair,  for  Mr.  Madison,  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  was  a  very  different  char- 
is 


194  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

acter  from  Mr.  Madison  the  author  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Resolutions. 

He  went  back  to  Bizarre  in  April,  1806,  a 
ruined  statesman,  never  again  to  represent  au 
thority  in  Congress  or  to  hope  for  ideal  purity 
in  government.  His  illusions  of  youth  were 
roughly  brushed  away.  He  saw,  what  so  few 
Virginians  were  honest  enough  to  see,  that  the 
Virginian  theory  had  been  silently  discarded  by 
its  own  authors,  and  that  through  it  pure  gov 
ernment  could  never  be  expected.  Hencefor 
ward  he  must  be  only  a  fault-finder,  a  common 
scold,  whose  exaggerated  peculiarities  of  man 
ner  would  invite  ridicule,  and  whose  only  means 
of  influence  must  lie  in  the  violence  of  his  tem 
per  and  the  sharpness  of  his  tongue.  Among 
thousands  of  honest  and  enthusiastic  young  men 
who  in  every  generation  rush  into  public  life, 
with  the  generous  confidence  that  at  last  gov 
ernment  shall  be  made  harmless  and  politics  re 
fined,  Randolph  was  neither  the  greatest  nor 
the  best ;  his  successes  and  failures  were  not  the 
most  alluring,  and  his  fate  was  not  more  tragic 
than  that  of  others :  but  it  is  the  misfortune  of 
these  opal-winged  dragon-flies  of  politics  that 
from  the  moment  their  wings  become  tarnished 
and  torn  they  themselves  become  objects  of  dis 
gust.  After  conceiving  the  career  of  a  Pericles 
or  a  Caesar,  to  fall  back  among  common  men 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.  195 

with  vulgar  aims  and  mean  methods,  is  fatal  to 
self-respect.  When  his  theories  broke  down, 
and  his  Virginian  leaders  decided  that  their 
own  principles  were  visionary,  Randolph  had 
nothing  to  do  in  political  life  but  to  accept  what 
other  men  accepted,  or  to  look  on  and  grumble 
at  evils  which  he  no  longer  hoped  to  cure.  He 
had  failed  as  a  public  man,  and  had  dragged 
with  him  in  his  failure  all  his  friends  and  his 
principles.  Though  he  remained  forever  before 
the  public,  he  could  not  revive  dead  hopes  or 
bring  back  the  noble  aspirations  of  1800. 

To  follow  him  through  five-and-twenty  years 
of  miserable  discontent  and  growing  eccentric 
ities  would  be  time  thrown  away.  He  repre 
sented  no  one  but  himself  ;  he  had  very  few 
friends,  and  mere  rags  and  tatters  of  political 
principles.  His  party  flung  him  aside,  and 
Mr.  Jefferson,  for  a  time  very  bitter  against 
him,  soon  learned  that  he  was  as  little  to  be 
feared  as  to  be  loved.  Randolph,  on  his  side, 
dubbing  his  old  leader  with  the  contemptuous 
epithet  of  "  St.  Thomas  of  Cantingbury,"  lost 
no  chance  of  expressing  for  Mr.  Jefferson  a 
sort  of  patronizing  and  humiliating  regard.  In 
his  eyes  Mr.  Jefferson  as  President  had  weakly 
betrayed  all  the  principles  he  had  preached  in 
opposition.  The  time  was  to  come  when  Mr. 
Jefferson  would  return  to  those  principles,  but 


196  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

meanwhile  Randolph  was  ruined.     He  knew  it, 
and  it  drove  him  mad. 

For  a  while,  however,  he  still  hoped  to  re 
trieve  himself  by  bringing  Mr.  Monroe  forward 
as  the  candidate  of  Virginia  for  the  next  gen 
eral  election  in  1808.  His  letters  to  Nicholson 
during  the  summer  of  1806  give  glimpses  of  his 
situation  before  it  was  made  wholly  desperate 
by  the  collapse  of  Monroe's  treaty  with  Eng 
land  in  March,  1807,  and  the  caucus  nominations 
of  Mr.  Madison  in  January,  1808. 

RANDOLPH   TO   NICHOLSON. 

"BIZARRE,  3  June,  1806.  .  .  .  The  public  prints 
teem  with  misrepresentations,  which  it  would  be  vain 
to  oppose,  even  if  an  independent  press  could  be  found 
to  attempt  it.  The  torrent  is  for  the  present  resist 
less.  I  long  for  the  meeting  of  Congress,  an  event 
which  hitherto  I  have  always  deprecated,  that  I  may 
face  the  monster  of  detraction.  .  .  .  Nothing  will  be 
left  undone  to  excite  an  opposition  to  me  at  the  next 
election,  but  I  have  no  expectation  that  it  will  be  ef 
fected,  or  of  its  success  in  case  it  should.  There  are 
too  many  gaping  idolaters  of  power  among  us,  but, 
like  you,  we  have  men  of  sterling  worth  ;  and  one 
thing  is  certain,  —  that,  however  we  may  differ  on  the 
subject  of  the  present  administration,  all  parties  here 
(I  speak  of  the  republicans)  unite  in  support  of  Mon 
roe  for  President.  I  have  heard  of  but  one  dissent 
ing  voice,  Giles,  who  is  entirely  misled  ;  all  his  infor 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       197 

mation  is  from  E[ppes],  his  representative.  They 
talk  of  an  expression  of  the  opinion*  of  our  legisla 
ture  to  this  effect  at  their  next  meeting.  An  ineffi 
cient  opposition  is  making  to  Garnett.  Thompson,  I 
believe,  will  have  an  opponent  likewise,  but  this  is 
not  yet  determined  on.  From  what  I  have  written 
above  you  are  not  to  infer  that  I  mean  to  yield  a 
bloodless  victory  to  my  enemies.  You  know  me  well 
enough,  I  hope,  to  believe  that  a  want  of  persever 
ance  is  not  among  my  defects.  I  will  persevere  to 
the  last  in  the  cause  in  which  I  am  embarked." 

"  24  June,  1806.  ...  As  to  politics,  lies  are  your 
only  sort  of  wear  nowadays.  Some  artificial  excite 
ment  has  been  produced  in  favor  of  administration, 
but  it  will  affect  no  election,  unless  perhaps  Thomp 
son's,  and,  on  second  thoughts,  Mercer's.  Beau 
Dawson  and  his  friend  Bailey  are  in  a  fair  way  of 
promotion.  I  can't  tell  what  provision  the  President 
that  is  to  be  can  make  for  these  two  worthy  cheva 
liers  d'industrie,  unless  he  gives  them  foreign  embas 
sies.  As  to  his  respectable  brother-in-law,  he  will 
succeed,  I  suppose,  to  the  vacant  Secretaryship  of 
State,  and  will  be  every  way  qualified  to  draw  the  in 
structions  and  receive  the  dispatches  of  the  two  il 
lustrious  diplomates.  .  .  .  You  ask  what  are  our 
prospects  in  Virginia.  Depend  upon  it,  a  very  large 
majority  of  us  are  decidedly  opposed  to  Madison's 
pretensions  ;  and  if  the  other  States  leave  it  to  Vir 
ginia,  he  never  will  be  President." 

"  7  July.  .  .  .  From  what  I  can  learn,  my  name 
is  the  general  theme  of  invective  in  the  Northern 


198  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

prints,  and  there  are  not  wanting  some  of  us  (one  of 
this  district)  who  are  very  willing  to  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  pull  me  down.  Giles,  I  am  told,  has  been 
very  violent,  and  has  even  descended  to  unworthy 
means  of  which  I  had  deemed  him  incapable.  I 
have  no  favors  to  ask.  I  want  nothing.  Let  justice 
be  done  to  my  motives,  which  I  know  to  have  been 
upright,  and  I  am  content.  No  member  of  the  ad 
ministration  has  reason  to  think  them  otherwise,  I 
am  sure ;  and  if  they  suppose  they  have,  they  shall 
not  dare  to  say  so  with  impunity.  .  .  .  About  the 
close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress,  Granger  in 
quired  of  a  gentleman  from  Eichmond,  then  at  Wash 
ington,  whether  there  was  not  such  a  character  as 
Creed  Taylor  in  my  district,  and  if  he  would  not  be 
brought  forward  to  oppose  me.  (Giles  who  had  al 
ways  professed  to  despise  Mr.  T.)  has  been  busy  mak 
ing  the  same  inquiries.  I  am  told  that  he  (G.)  has 
shown  a  letter  which  I  wrote  him  in  full  confidence 
during  the  winter,  to  my  prejudice.  '  Where  dwell- 
eth  honor?"' 

These  letters  to  Nicholson  are  far  less  notable 
than  the  series  of  letters  which  Randolph  was 
now  writing  to  Monroe.  Of  all  the  great  names 
in  American  history,  that  of  Monroe  seems  to 
the  keen  eyes  of  critics  to  stand  on  the  small 
est  intellectual  foundation.  Individuality,  orig 
inality,  strong  grasp  of  principles,  he  had  to  a 
less  degree  than  any  other  prominent  Virginian 
of  his  time ;  but  while  usually  swept  along  by 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.  199 

the  current  of  prevailing  opinion,  lie  enjoyed 
general  respect  as  a  man  whose  personal  hon 
esty  was  above  dispute,  and  whose  motives 
were  sincerely  pure.  As  Mr.  Madison's  chief 
rival  in  popularity,  although  absent  in  Eng 
land,  he  now  became  a  disturbing  force  in 
Virginian  politics,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  on  one 
side,  Randolph,  Nicholson,  Taylor,  Tazewell, 
and  their  friends  on  the  other,  dispiuted  fiercely 
the  possession  of  this  ally.  Far  away  in  Lon 
don,  Mr.  Monroe  began  to  receive  letters  filled 
with  such  honeyed  flattery  as  few  men  except 
those  who  wield  power  and  dispense  patronage 
are  so  happy  as  to  hear.  No  reader  can  help 
noticing  that  Randolph  could  flatter,  and  per 
haps,  for  the  moment,  he  may  have  believed 
his  flattery  sincere.  He  had  reason,  too,  in 
feeling  kindly  towards  Mr.  Monroe,  for  Monroe 
was  showing  much  kindness  to  Randolph's 
poor  deaf-and-dumb  nephew,  St.  George,  who 
had  been  sent  abroad.  The  following  extracts 
from  Randolph's  letters  show  the  man  in  a  new 
character,  —  that  of  political  manager.  The 
first  was  written  in  the  full  excitement  of  his 
winter  struggle. 

RANDOLPH    TO    MONROE. 

"WASHINGTON,  March  20,  1806.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  longer  a  doubt  but  that  the  principles  of  our  ad- 


200  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ministration  have  been  materially  changed.  The 
compass  of  a  letter  (indeed,  a  volume  would  be  too 
small)  cannot  suffice  to  give  you  even  an  outline.  Suf 
fice  it  to  say  that  everything  is  made  a  business  of  bar 
gain  and  traffic,  the  ultimate  object  of  which  is  to  raise 
Mr.  Madison  to  the  presidency.  To  this  the  old 
republican  party  will  never  consent,  nor  can  New 
York  be  brought  into  the  measure.  Between  them  * 
and  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Madison  there  is  an  open 
rupture.  Need  I  tell  you  that  they  (the  old  repub 
licans)  are  united  in  your  support  ?  that  they  look  to 
you,  sir,  for  the  example  which  this  nation  has  yet  to 
receive  to  demonstrate  that  the  government  can  be 
conducted  on  open,  upright  principles,  without  intrigue 
or  any  species  of  disingenuous  artifice  ?  We  are  ex 
tremely  rejoiced  to  hear  that  you  are  about  to  return 
to  the  United  States.  Much  as  I  am  personally  inter 
ested,  through  St.  George,  in  your  stay  in  Europe,  I 
would  not  have  you  remain  one  day  longer.  Your 
country  requires,  nay  demands,  your  presence.  It  is 
time  that  a  character  which  has  proved  invulnerable 
to  every  open  attack  should  triumph  over  insidious 
enmity." 

"ALEXANDRIA,  April  22,  1806.  .  .  .  Last  night 
Congress  adjourned,  under  circumstances  the  most 
extraordinary  that  1  ever  witnessed.  It  would  be 
impossible  for  me,  even  if  it  were  advisable,  to  give 
you  a  sketch,  much  less  a  history,  of  our  proceedings. 
The  appointment  of  Mr.  Pinkney  to  the  Court  of 
London  will,  no  doubt,  be  announced  to  you,  at  least 
as  soon  as  this  letter  can  reach  the  place  of  its  des- 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.  201 

tiuation.  A  decided  division  has  taken  place  in  the 
republican  party,  which  has  been  followed  by  a  pro 
scription  of  the  anti-ministerialists.  Among  the 
number  of  the  proscribed  are  Mr.  Nicholson,  who 
has  retired  in  strong  disgust ;  the  Speaker,  who  will 
soon  follow  him  from  a  like  sentiment ;  and  many 
others  of  minor  consequence,  such  as  the  writer  of 
this  letter,  cum  multis  aliis.  My  object  at  present  is 
merely  to  guard  you,  which  your  own  prudence,  per 
haps,  renders  an  unnecessary  caution,  against,  a  com- 
promitment  of  yourself  to  men  in  whom  you  cannot 
wholly  confide.  Be  assured  that  the  aspect  of  affairs 
here,  and  the  avowed  characteristics  of  those  who 
conduct  them,  have  undergone  a  material  change 
since  you  left  America.  In  a  little  while  I  hope  you 
will  be  on  the  spot  to  judge  for  yourself,  to  see  with 
your  own  eyes  and  to  hear  with  your  own  ears.  All 
the  statements  of  our  public  prints  are,  at  present, 
garbled,  owing  to  the  peculiar  situation  of  the  place 
which  is  the  established  seat  of  our  government." 

"BIZARRK,  July  3,  1806.  .  .  .  There  is  a  system 
of  which  you  are  not  informed,  but  in  which,  never 
theless,  every  effort  will  be  made,  indeed  is  making, 
to  induce  you  to  play  a  part  so  as  to  give  a  stage  effect 
that  may  suit  a  present  purpose.  I  wish  it  were  in 
my  power  to  be  more  explicit.  Be  assured,  however, 
that  you  have  friends,  whose  attachment  to  you  is  not 
4o  be  shaken,  and  from  whose  zeal  you  have  at  the 
same  time  nothing  to  fear.  I  need  not  tell  you,  I 
hope,  that  the  fervor  of  my  attachment  has  never 
betrayed  me  into  a  use  of  your  name  on  any  occasion, 


202  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

except  where  your  public  dispatches,  laid  by  govern 
ment  before  Congress,  called  for  and  justified  the 
measure." 

"BIZARRE,  September  16, 1806.  .  .  .  If  heretofore 
I  had  been  at  a  loss  to  fix  upon  the  individual  the 
most  disinterested  and  virtuous  whom  I  have  known, 
I  could  now  find  no  difficulty  in  determining ;  nor  do 
I  hesitate  to  declare  that  the  very  arguments  which 
you  adduce  to  dissuade  your  friends  from  supporting 
you  at  the  next  presidential  election  form  with  me 
an  invincible  motive  for  persisting  in  that  support, 
since  they  exhibit  the  most  irrefragable  proof  of  that 
superior  merit  which  you  alone  are  unwilling  to  ac 
knowledge.  Yet  I  must  confess  there  are  consider 
ations  amongst  those  presented  by  you  that  would 
have  great  and  perhaps  decisive  influence  upon  my 
mind  where  the  pretensions  of  the  candidates  were 
nearly  equal.  But  in  this  case  there  is  not  only  a 
strong  preference  for  the  one  party,  but  a  decided 
objection  to  the  other.  It  is  not  a  singular  belief 
among  the  republicans  that  to  the  great  and  acknowl 
edged  influence  of  this  last  gentleman  [Mr.  Madison] 
we  are  indebted  for  that  strange  amalgamation  of 
men  and  principles  which  has  distinguished  some  of 
the  late  acts  of  the  administration,  and  proved  so  inju 
rious  to  it.  Many,  the  most  consistent  and  influential 
of  the  old  republicans,  by  whose  exertions  the  present 
men  were  brought  into  power,  have  beheld,  with  unv 
measurable  disgust,  the  principles  for  which  they  had 
contended,  and,  as  they  thought,  established,  neutral 
ized  at  the  touch  of  a  cold  and  insidious  moderation. 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.      203 

I  speak  not  of  the  herd  of  place-hunters,  whose  sole 
view  in  aiding  to  produce  a  change  in  the  administra 
tion  was  the  advancement  of  themselves  and  their 
connections,  but  of  those  disinterested  and  gener 
ous  spirits  who  served  from  attachment  to  the  cause 
alone,  and  who  neither  expect  nor  desire  preferment. 
Such  men,  of  whom  I  could  give  you  a  list  that  would 
go  near  to  fill  my  paper,  ascribe  to  the  baneful  coun 
sels  of  the  Secretary  of  State  that  we  have  been  grad 
ually  relaxing  from  our  old  principles,  and  relapsing 
into  the  system  of  our  predecessors  ;  that  government 
stands  aloof  from  its  tried  friends,  whilst  it  hugs  to 
its  bosom  men  of  the  most  equivocal  character,  and 
even  some  who  have  been  and  still  are  unequivocally 
hostile  to  that  cause  which  our  present  rulers  stand 
pledged  to  support ;  and  that  you  are  at  this  moment 
associated  with  a  colleague  whom  former  administra 
tions  deemed  a  fit  instrument  to  execute  the  ever- 
memorable  treaty  of  London  !  They  are,  moreover, 
determined  not  to  have  a  Yazoo  President  if  they  can 
avoid  it,  nor  one  who  has  mixed  in  the  intrigues  of 
the  last  three  or  four  years  at  Washington.  There  is 
another  consideration,  which  I  know  not  how  to  touch. 
You,  my  dear  sir,  cannot  be  ignorant,  although  of  all 
mankind  you,  perhaps,  have  the  least  cause  to  know 
it,  1  ow  deeply  the  respectability  of  any  character  may 
be  impaired  by  an  unfortunate  matrimonial  connec 
tion.  I  can  pursue  this  subject  no  further.  It  is  at 
once  too  delicate  and  too  mortifying.  Before  the 
Decision  is  ultimately  made  I  hope  to  have  the  pleas 
ure  of  communicating  fully  with  you  in  person. 


-r 


204  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

With  you,  I  believe  the  principles  of  our  govern 
ment  to  be  in  danger,  and  union  and  activity  on  the 
part  of  its  friends  indispensable  to  its  existence.  But 
that  union  can  never  be  obtained  under  the  presi 
dency  of  Mr.  Madison.  ...  I  will  never  despair  of 
the  republic  whilst  I  have  life,  but  never  could  I  see 
less  cause  for  hope  than  now.  I  have  beheld  my 
species  of  late  in  a  new  and  degrading  point  of  view, 
but  at  the  same  time  I  have  met  with  a  few  God 
like  spirits,  who  redeem  the  whole  race  in  my  good 
opinion." 

The  story  of  Randolph's  famous  quarrel  with 
his  party  lias  now  been  told  in  a  spirit  as 
friendly  to  him  as  his  friends  can  require  or  ex 
pect,  —  has  been  told,  so  far  as  possible,  in  his 
own  words,  without  prejudice  or  passion,  and 
shall  be  left  to  be  judged  on  its  merits.  There 
are,  however,  a  few  questions  which  students 
of  American  history  will  do  well  to  ask  them 
selves  before  taking  sides  with  or  against  the 
partisans  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  Randolph,  and 
Monroe.  Did  or  did  not  Randolph  go  with  his 
party  in  disregarding  its  own  principles  down 
to  the  moment  when  he  became  jealous  of  Mad 
ison's  influence  ?  Was  that  jealousy  a  cause  of 
his  feud  ?  Was  the  Yazoo  compromise  a  meas 
ure  so  morally  wrong  as  to  justify  the  disrup 
tion  of  the  party  ?  Had  be  reason  to  think 
Monroe  a  safer  man  than  Madison  ?  Had  he 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITH 

not  reason  to  know  that  Mr.  Jeff 
and  Mr.  Gallatin,  were  quite  as 
Madison,    for    "  that    strange 
which  he  complained  of?     Or,  to  sum  up' all   ^ 
these  questions  in  one,  was  Randolph  capable  I  A. . 
of  remaining  true  to  any  principle  or  any  friend 
ship   that  required  him  to  control   his  violent 
temper  and  imperious  will? 

Upon  this  point  Randolph's  Virginian  ad 
mirers  will  listen  to  no  argument :  they  insist 
that  he  was  their  only  consistent  statesman  ; 
they  reject  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and 
Mr.  Monroe,  and  utterly  repudiate  President 
Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  and  John  Mar 
shall,  in  order  to  follow  this  new  prophet  of 
evil.  Without  Randolph,  the  connection  of 
Virginian  history  would,  in  their  eyes,  be  lost. 
Perhaps  they  are  right.  Readers  must  solve 
the  riddle  as  truth  and  justice  shall  seem  to  re 
quire. 

Meanwhile  Randolph  fretted  at  Bizarre,  and 
wrote  long  letters,  signed  "  Decius,"  to  the 
"  Richmond  Enquirer,"  until  the  much-desired 
month  of  December  came,  and  he  returned  to 
fight  his  battles  at  Washington.  Passions, 
however,  had  now  cooled.  Calmer  himself,  he 
found  all  parties  ready  to  meet  him  in  a  formal 
truce.  Nicholson  had  gone  upon  the  bench,  but 
Macon  was  still  Speaker,  and  Randolph  himself, 


206  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

until  March  4, 1806,  could  not  be  deposed  from 
his  chairmanship  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com 
mittee.  Mr.  Jefferson's  message,  very  different 
in  tone  from  that  of  the  year  before,  was  calcu 
lated  to  soothe  party  quarrels  and  to  satisfy 
Randolph's  wishes.  In  reality  the  President's 
belligerency  of  December,  1805,  had  been  in 
tended  as  a  ruse  and  a  false  demonstration  to 
cover  a  retreat  from  foreign  difficulties;  and 
Randolph,  knowing  this,  had  made  use  of  his 
knowledge  to  worry  the  administration  and  to 
damage  Mr.  Madison  by  affecting  at  one  time 
to  take  these  belligerent  threats  as  serious,  and 
by  throwing  ridicule  upon  them  at  other  times 
as  quackery.  In  December,  1806,  the  Presi 
dent,  satisfied  that  the  ruse  of  last  year  had 
failed,  sent  in  a  message  breathing  only  peace 
and  the  principles  of  1800.  Randolph  chose  to 
look  upon  it  as  a  triumph  for  himself,  and  wrote 
to  Nicholson  accordingly  :  — 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"GEORGETOWN,  10  December,  1806.  .  .  .  The 
message  of  the  3d  was,  as  you  supposed,  wormwood 
to  certain  gentry.  They  made  wry  faces,  but,  in  fear 
of  the  rod  and  in  hopes  of  sugar-plums,  swallowed  it 
with  less  apparent  repugnance  than  I  had  predicted. 
...  Of  all  the  men  who  have  met  me  with  the 
greatest  apparent  cordiality,  old  Smilie  is  the  last 
whom  you  would  suspect.  I  understand  that  they 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       207 

(you  know  who  they  are)  are  well  disposed  towards 
a  truce.  The  higher  powers  are  in  the  same  goodly 
temper,  as  I  am  informed.  I  have  seen  nobody  be 
longing  to  the  administration  but  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  who  called  here  the  day  before  yesterday,  and 
whose  visit  I  repaid  this  morning.  You  may  remem 
ber,  some  years  ago,  my  having  remarked  to  you  the 
little  attention  which  we  received  from  the  grandees, 
and  the  little  disposition  which  I  felt  to  court  it.  I 
have  therefore  invariably  waited  for  the  first  advance 
from  them,  because  at  home  I  conceive  myself  bound 
to  make  it  to  any  gentleman  who  may  be  in  my  neigh 
borhood." 

Burr's  conspiracy  now  broke  out,  startling 
the  nation  out  of  its  calm,  and  proving,  or  seem 
ing  to  prove,  the  justice  of  Randolph's  suspi 
cions  and  anxieties.  For  a  time  a  sort  of  panio 
reigned  in  Washington  except  among  the  feder 
alists.  Randolph  and  his  friends  sneered  at  the 
last  year's  work ;  Smith  and  his  friends  grum 
bled  at  the  supineness  of  this  year.  The  ex 
pressions  of  both  these  factions  in  their  private 
letters  were  very  characteristic. 

On  December,  26,  1806,  Macon  wrote  to 
Nicholson,  "  The  doings  here  will  surely  con 
vince  every  candid  man  in  the  world  that  the 
republicans  of  the  old  school  were  not  wrong 
last  winter.  Give  truth  fair  play,  and  it  will 
prevail."  A  fortnight  later,  January  9,  1807, 


208  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

General  Smith  wrote  to  his  brother-in-law,  W 
C.  Nicholas :  — 

"  My  ambition  is  at  an  end.  I  sickeii  when  I  look 
forward  to  a  state  of  things  that  would  require  exer 
tions.  We  have  established  theories  that  would  stare 
down  any  possible  measures  of  offence  or  defence. 
Should  a  man  take  a  patriotic  stand  against  those 
destructive  and  seductive  fine-spun  follies,  he  will  be 
written  down  very  soon.  Look  at  the  last  message  ! 
It  in  some  sort  declared  more  troops  to  be  unneces 
sary.  It  is  such,  however,  that  the  President  cannot 
recommend  (although  he  now  sees  the  necessity)  any 
augmentation  of  the  army.  Nay,  /,  even  /,  did  not 
dare  to  bring  forward  the  measure  until  I  had  first 
obtained  his  approbation.  Never  was  there  a  time 
when  executive  influence  so  completely  governed  the 
nation." 

General  Smith's  comments  on  the  "  destruc 
tive  and  seductive  fine-spun  follies,"  which  he  so 
detested,  forgot  to  note  that,  whether  destruc 
tive  or  not,  they  sprang  straight  from  the  theo 
ries  of  his  party,  which  had  no  moral  existence 
except  on  and  in  those  principles.  John  Adams 
had  been  sent  back  to  Braintree  for  no  other 
avowed  reason  than  that  Smith  might  establish, 
as  the  practice  of  government,  what  he  now 
called  "fine-spun  follies."  Randolph  felt  the 
shame  of  such  an  inconsistency.  The  meeting 
of  two  extremes  is  always  interesting,  and  the 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       209 

moment  of  their  contact  is  portentous.  While 
General  Smith  on  one  side  was  repudiating  the 
theories  he  had  "  established"  in  1800,  and  was 
frankly  going  back  to  his  old  federalist  policy, 
Randolph,  who  still  believed  in  the  "  fine-spun 
follies  "  of  his  youth,  was  also  confessing  that 
in  practice  they  had  failed,  and  that  the  night 
of  corruption  and  violence  was  again  closing 
upon  mankind.  On  February,  15,  1807,  a  few 
weeks  after  General  Smith's  letter  to  Nicholas, 
Randolph  wrote  to  Joseph  Nicholson  :  - 

"  I  do  now  believe  the  destiny  of  the  world  to  be 
fixed,  at  least  for  some  centuries  to  come.  After 
another  process  of  universal  dominion,  degeneracy, 
barbarian  irruption  and  conquest,  the  character  of  man 
may,  two  thousand  years  hence,  perhaps,  begin  to 
wear  a  brighter  aspect.  Cast  your  eyes  backward  to 
the  commencement  of  the  French  Revolution ;  recall 
to  mind  our  hopes  and  visions  of  the  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  mankind,  and  then  look  at  things  as 
they  are !  I  am  wearied  and  disgusted  with  this  pict 
ure,  which  perpetually  obtrudes  itself  upon  me." 

The  republican  party  had  broken  up  in  fac 
tions,  and  even  its  best  members  had  lost  faith 
in  their  own  theories.  Among  these  factions 
Randolph's  group  of  "old  republicans "  held  a 
sort  of  monopoly  in  pure  republican  principles, 
while  the  rest  were  contented  with  carrying  on 
the  government  from  day  to  day,  disputing,  not 
14 


210  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

about  principles,  but  about  offices.  Randolph 
looked  down  on  them  all  with  bitter  contempt. 
His  letters  to  Nicholson  became  gall. 

RANDOLPH    TO   NICHOLSON. 

"COMMITTEE  ROOM,  17  February,  1807.  .  .  . 
Bad  as  you  suppose  matters  to  be,  they  are  even 
worse  than  you  apprehend.  What  think  you  of  that 
Prince  of  Prigs  and  Puppies,  G.  W.  C  [ampbell]  for 
a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ! ! ! 
Risum  teneas  ?  You  must  know  we  have  made  a  new 
•circuit,  consisting  of  the  three  western  States,  with  an 
additional  associate  justice.  A  caucus  (excuse  the 
slang  of  politics)  was  held,  as  I  am  informed,  by  the 
delegations  of  those  States  for  the  purpose  of  recom 
mending  some  character  to  the  President.  Boyle  was 
talked  of,  but  the  interest  of  C.  finally  prevailed. 
This  is  *  Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry '  with  a  vengeance. 
.  .  .  If  Mr.  '  American,'  whom,  by  the  way,  I  never 
see,  should  persevere  in  the  attack  which  you  tell  me 
he  is  making  upon  me,  I  shall  issue  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal  against  his  principals.  The  doughty 
general  [Samuel  Smith]  is  vulnerable  at  all  points, 
and  his  plausible  brother  [Robert  Smith]  not  much 
better  defended.  The  first  has  condemned  in  terms 
of  unqualified  reprobation  the  general  measures  pur 
sued  by  the  administration,  arid  lamented  that,  such 
was  the  public  infatuation,  no  man  could  take  a  posi 
tion  against  it  without  destroying  himself  and  injur 
ing  the  cause  which  he  attempted  to  serve,  —  with 
much  more  to  the  same  tune.  I  called  some  time 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       211 

since  at  the  navy  office  to  ask  an  explanation  of  cer 
tain  items  of  the  estimate  for  this  year.  The  Secre 
tary  called  up  his  chief  clerk,  who  knew  very  little 
more  of  the  business  than  his  master.  I  propounded 
a  question  to  the  head  of  the  department ;  he  turned 
to  the  clerk  like  a  boy  who  cannot  say  his  lesson,  and 
with  imploring  countenance  beseeches  aid ;  the  clerk 
with  much  assurance  gabbled  out  some  commonplace 
jargon,  which  1  would  not  take  for  sterling  ;  an  ex 
planation  was  required,  and  both  were  dumb.  This 
pantomime  was  repeated  at  every  new  item,  until,  dis 
gusted,  and  ashamed  for  the  degraded  situation  of  the 
principal,  I  took  leave  without  pursuing  the  subject, 
seeing  that  my  subject  could  not  be  attained.  There 
was  not  one  single  question  relating  to  the  depart 
ment  that  the  Secretary  could  answer." 

Randolph's  temper  was  now  ugly  beyond 
what  was  to  be  expected  from  a  man  whose  ob 
jects  were  only  to  serve  the  public  and  to  secure 
honest  government.  His  hatred  of  the  northern 
democrats  broke  out  in  ways  which  showed  a 
wish  to  rule  or  ruin.  When  the  bill  for  pro 
hibiting  the  slave-trade  was  before  the  House, 
a  bill  chiefly  supported  by  the  Varnums  and 
Bidwells,  Sloans,  Smilies,  and  Findleys,  whom 
he  so  much  disliked,  he  broke  out  in  a  startling 
denunciation  of  the  clause  which  forbade  the 
coast-wise  slave-trade  in  vessels  under  forty 
tons.  This  provision,  he  said,  touched  the  right 
of  private  property ;  he  feared  it  might  one  day 


212  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

be  made  the  pretext  for  universal  emancipation ; 
lie  had  rather  lose  the  bill,  he  had  rather  lose 
all  the  bills  of  the  session,  he  had  rather  lose 
every  bill  passed  since  the  establishment  of  the 
government,  than  agree  to  the  clause ;  it  went 
to  blow  the  Constitution  into  ruins ;  if  ever  the 
time  of  disunion  should  arrive,  the  line  of  sev 
erance  would  be  between  the  slave-holding  and 
the  non-slave-holding  States.  Besides  attempt 
ing  thus  to  stir  up  trouble  between  the  South 
and  North,  he  made  a  desperate  effort  to  put 
the  Senate  and  House  at  odds,  and  showed  a 
spirit  of  pure  venom  that  went  far  to  sink  his 
character  as  an  honest  man. 

On  March  3, 1807,  his  means  of  effecting  fur 
ther  mischief  were  to  be  greatly  curtailed,  for 
on  that  day  the  Ninth  Congress  came  to  an  end, 
and  Randolph  lost  his  hold  on  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee.  This  was  not  his  only  dis 
aster,  for,  on  the  same  day,  Mr.  Erskine,  the 
British  Minister  at  Washington,  received  from 
London  a  copy  of  the  new  treaty  which  Mr. 
Monroe  and  Mr.  Pinkney  had  barely  succeeded 
in  negotiating  with  the  British  government. 
Hurrying  with  it  to  Mr.  Madison,  the  Minister 
supposed  that  an  extra  session  of  the  Senate 
would  be  immediately  called  for  March  4  ;  but 
instead  of  this,  the  President  declined  to  send 
the  treaty  to  the  Senate  at  all,  and  contented 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       213 

himself  with  denouncing  it  in  very  strong  lan 
guage  to  all  the  senators  who  called  upon  him. 
The  treaty  was  indeed  a  very  bad  one,  but  it 
carried  on  its  shoulders  the  fortunes  of  the  old 
republicans,  and  its  humiliating  reception  was 
a  fatal  blow  to  Randolph's  hope  of  retrieving 
his  own  fortunes  by  attaching  them  to  those 
of  James  Monroe.  Randolph  of  course  felt  no 
doubt  as  to  the  motives  which  prompted  so 
stern  a  rebuke  before  an  expectant  nation.  He 
wrote  to  Monroe  accordingly :  — 

RANDOLPH   TO    MONROE. 

"BIZARRE,  March  24,  1807.  ...  Mr.  T.  M. 
Randolph  suddenly  declines  a  reelection,  in  favor  of 
Wilson  Nicholas,  whose  talents  for  intrigue  you  well 
know,  I  presume.  Had  I  known  of  Mr.  Purviance's 
arrival,  I  should  certainly  have  remained  in  Washing 
ton  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  him,  and  procuring 
better  information  concerning  the  treaty  than  the 
contradictory  accounts  of  the  newspapers  furnish.  I 
have  considered  the  decree  of  Berlin  to  be  the  great 
cause  of  difficulty ;  at  the  same  time,  I  never  had  a 
doubt  that  clamor  would  be  raised  against  the  treaty, 
be  it  what  it  might.  My  reasons  for  this  opinion  I 
will  give  when  we  meet.  They  are  particular  as  well 
as  general.  Prepare  yourself  to  be  surprised  at  some 
things  which  you  will  near." 

The  old  republicans  were  now  in  despair. 
Recognizing  the  fact  that  Monroe  was  out  of 


214  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

the  race,  they  turned  their  attention  to  New 
York.  Of  all  northern  democracy,  the  demo 
crats  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  the  Cheet- 
hams  and  Duanes,  had  been  most  repulsive  to 
Randolph,  but  in  his  hatred  for  Mr.  Madison  he 
was  now  ready  to  unite  with  these  dregs  of  cor 
ruption,  rather  than  submit  to  the  Secretary 
of  State ;  he  was  ready  to  make  George  Clinton 
president,  and  to  elevate  De  Witt  Clinton,  most 
selfish,  unscrupulous,  and  unsafe  of  democrats, 
into  a  position  where  the  whole  government 
patronage  would  lie  at  his  mercy.  He  wrote 
again  to  Monroe,  evidently  to  prepare  him  for 
being  gently  set  aside  :  — 

RANDOLPH   TO    MONROE. 

"  RICHMOND,  May  30,  1807.  .  .  .  The  friends  of 
Mr.  Madison  have  left  nothing  undone  to  impair  the 
very  high  and  just  confidence  of  the  nation  in  your 
self.  Nothing  but  the  possession  of  the  government 
could  have  enabled  them  to  succeed,  however  par 
tially,  in  this  attempt.  In  Virginia  they  have  met 
with  the  most  determined  resistance,  and  although 
I  believe  the  executive  influence  will  at  last  carry 
the  point,  for  which  it  has  been  unremittingly  ex 
erted,  of  procuring  the  nomination  of  electors  favor 
able  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  yet  it  is  not  even 
in  its  power  to  shake  the  confidence  of  the  people 
of  this  State  in  your  principles  and  abilities,  or  to 
efface  your  public  services  from  their  recollection 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       215 

I  should  be  wanting  in  my  duty  to  you,  my  dear 
sir,  were  I  not  to  apprise  you  that  exertions  to  di 
minish  the  value  of  your  character  and  public  ser 
vices  have  been  made  by  persons,  and  in  a  manner 
that  will  be  scarcely  credible  to  you,  although  at  the 
same  time  unquestionably  true.  Our  friend  Colonel 
Mercer,  should  you  land  in  a  northern  port,  can  give 
you  some  correct  and  valuable  information  on  this 
and  other  subjects.  Meanwhile,  the  republicans  of 
New  York,  sore  with  the  coalition  effected  by  Mr. 
John  Nicholas  between  his  party  and  the  federalists 
(now  entirely  discomfited),  and  knowing  the  auspices 
under  which  he  acted,  are  irreconcilably  opposed 
to  Mr.  Madison,  and  striving  to  bring  forward  Mr. 
Clinton,  the  Vice-President.  Much  consequently 
depends  on  the  part  which  Pennsylvania  will  take  in 
this  transaction.  There  is  a  leaning,  evidently,  to 
wards  the  New  York  candidate.  Whether  the  execu 
tive  influence  will  be  able  to  overcome  this  predispo 
sition  yet  remains  to  be  seen.  In  the  person  of  any 
other  man  than  Mr.  M.  I  have  no  doubt  it  would 
succeed.  But  the  republicans  of  Pennsylvania,  set 
ting  all  other  considerations  aside,  are  indignant  at 
the  recollection  that  in  all  their  struggles  with  the 
combined  parties  of  McKeau,  etc.,  and  the  federal 
ists,  the  hand  of  government  has  been  felt  against 
them,  and  so  far  as  it  has  been  exerted  they  choose  to 
ascribe  [it]  to  the  exertions  of  Mr.  M.  Such  is,  as 
nearly  as  I  can  collect,  the  posture  of  affairs  at  present. 
Wilson  C.  N[icholas]  and  Duane  are  both  in  town  at 
Jiis  time.  Some  important  result  is  no  doubt  to  flow 


216  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

from  this  conjunction.      When  you  return,  you  will 
hardly  know  the  country.     A  system  of  espionage 
and  denunciation  has  been  organized  which  pervades 
every  quarter.     Distrust  and  suspicion  generally  pre 
vail  in  the  intercourse  between  man  and  man.     All  is 
constraint,  reserve,  and  mystery.    Intrigue  has  arrived 
at  a  pitch  which  I  hardly  supposed  it  would  have 
reached  in  five  centuries.    The  man  of  all  others  who, 
I  suppose,  would  be  the  last  suspected  by  you  is  the 
nucleus  of  this  system.     The  maxim  of  Rochefou 
cauld  is  in  him  completely  verified,  <  that  an  affecta 
tion   of  simplicity  is   the  refinement  of  imposture.' 
Hypocrisy  and  treachery  have  reached   their  acme 
amongst  us.     I  hope  that  I  shall  see  you  very  soon 
after  your  arrival.     I  can  then  give  you  a  full  ex 
planation  of   these  general   expressions,  and   proof 
that  they  have  been  made  upon  the  surest  grounds. 
Amongst  your  unshaken  friends  you  may  reckon  two 
of  our  chancellors,  Mr.  Nicholson  of  Maryland,  Mr. 
Clay  of   Philadelphia,    Col.   Jno.  Taylor,  and   Mr 
Macon." 

At  the  same  time,  Judge  Nicholson  wrote  to 
Monroe  a  letter  which  is  worth  a  moment's 
notice  on  account  of  the  support  it  gave  to 
Randolph's  views :  — 

JOSEPH   H.    NICHOLSON    TO    MONROE. 

"  BALTIMORE,  April  12,  1807.  ...  As  to  the 
public  sentiment,  I  cannot  readily  state  what  it  is. 
Perhaps  there  is  none.  The  President's  popularity 
IB  unbounded,  and  his  will  is  that  of  the  nation.  His 


MONROE  AND  THE  SMITHS.       217 

approbation  seems  to  be  the  criterion  by  which  the 
correctness  of  all  public  events  is  tested.  Any  treaty, 
therefore,  which  he  sanctions  will  be  approved  of  by 
a  very  large  proportion  of  our  people.  The  federal 
ists  will  murmur,  but  as  this  is  the  result  of  system, 
and  not  of  principle,  its  impression  will  be  neither 
deep  nor  extensive.  A  literal  copy  of  Jay's  treaty, 
if  ratified  by  the  present  administration,  would  meet 
their  opposition,  while  the  same  instrument,  although 
heretofore  so  odious  to  some  of  us,  would  now  com 
mand  the  support  of  a  large  body  who  call  themselves 
democrats.  Such  is  our  present  infatuation.  To 
this  general  position,  however,  there  are  some  honest 
exceptions.  There  is  a  portion  who  yet  retain  the 
feelings  of  1798,  and  whom  I  denominate  the  old 
republican  party.  These  men  are  personally  attached 
to  the  President,  and  condemn  his  measures  when 
they  think  him  wrong.  They  neither  wish  for  nor 
expect  anything  from  his  extensive  patronage.  Their 
public  service  is  intended  for  the  public  good,  and  has 
no  view  to  private  emolument  or  personal  ambition. 
But  it  is  said  they  have  not  his  confidence,  and  I  la 
ment  it.  You  must  have  perceived  from  the  public 
prints  that  the  most  active  members  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  are  new  men,  and  I  fear  that  foreign 
nations  will  not  estimate  American  talent  very  highly 
if  our  congressional  proceedings  are  taken  as  the  rule. 
If  you  knew  the  Sloans,  the  Alstons,  and  the  Bid- 
wells  of  the  day,  and  there  are  a  great  many  of  them, 
you  would  be  mortified  at  seeing  the  affairs  of  the 
nation  in  such  miserable  hands.  Yet  these  are  styled 


218  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

exclusively  the  President's  friends.  .  .  .  These  facts 
will  enable  you  to  form  an  early  opinion  as  to  the 
necessity  of  remaining  in  England.  You  know  Mr. 
Jefferson  perfectly  well,  and  can  therefore  calculate 
the  chances  of  his  approving  anything  done  not  in 
precise  conformity  to  his  instructions.  He  is,  how 
ever,  somewhat  different  from  what  he  was.  He  feels 
at  present  his  own  strength  with  the  nation,  and 
therefore  is  less  inclined  to  yield  to  the  advice  of  his 
friends.  Your  return  is  anxiously  wished  for  by 
many  who,  I  presume  you  know,  are  desirous  of  put 
ting  you  in  nomination  for  the  presidency.  My  own 
expectations  are  not  very  sanguine  on  this  subject. 
Great  efforts  are  making  for  and  by  another.  The 
Virginia  and  New  York  elections  which  take  place  in 
the  course  of  the  present  month  will  determine  much. 
The  point  is  made  throughout  Virginia,  I  believe, 
and  much  solicitude  is  felt  and  expressed  by  the  can 
didate  for  the  presidency  as  to  the  result  of  the  sev 
eral  elections.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  you 
will  return  as  early  as  possible." 

What  course  things  might  have  taken  had 
nothing  occurred  to  disturb  domestic  politics 
must  be  left  to  conjecture.  Fate  now  decreed 
that  a  series  of  unexpected  events  should  create 
an  entirely  new  situation,  and  bury  in  rapid 
oblivion  all  memory  of  old  republican  princi 
ples.  The  aggressions  of  Europe  forced  Amer 
ica  out  of  her  chosen  path. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

"A  NUISANCE  AND  A  CURSE." 

RANDOLPH'S  letters  to  Nicholson  carry  on 
the  story :  — 

RANDOLPH   TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  BIZARRE,  25  March,  1807.  ...  I  fully  intended 
to  have  written  to  you  the  day  before  my  departure 
from  Washington,  but  was  prevented  by  an  accident 
which  had  nearly  demolished  me.  Being  very  unwell 
on  Monday  night,  the  2d,  and  no  carriage  to  be  pro 
cured,  I  accepted  the  offer  of  one  of  his  horses  from 
Dr.  Bibb  (successor  to  Spalding),  arid  we  set  out  to 
gether  for  Georgetown.  Not  very  far  beyond  our 
old  establishment  (Sally  Dashiell's),  the  only  girth 
there  was  to  the  saddle  gave  way,  and  as  it  fitted  the 
horse  very  badly  it  came  with  his  rider  at  once  to 
the  ground.  Figure  to  yourself  a  man  almost  bruised 
to  death,  on  a  dark,  cold  night,  in  the  heart  of  the 
capital  of  the  United  States,  out  of  sight  or  hearing 
of  a  human  habitation,  and  you  will  have  a  tolerably 
exact  idea  of  my  situation,  premising  that  I  was  pre 
viously  knocked  up  by  our  legislative  orgies,  and  some 
scrapes  that  our  friend  Lloyd  led  me  into.  With 
Bibb's  assistance,  however,  I  mounted  the  other  horse, 
%nd  we  crept  along  to  Crawford's,  where  I  was  seized 


220  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

with  a  high  fever,  the  effects  of  which  have  not  yet 
left  me.  To  end  this  Canterbury  tale,  I  did  not  get 
out  of  bed  until  Wednesday  afternoon,  when  I  left  it 
to  begin  a  painful  journey  homewards.  Anything, 
however,  was  preferable  to  remaining  within  the  ten- 
miles-square  one  day  longer  than  I  was  obliged.  .  .  . 
Colonel  Burr  (quantum  mutatus  ab  ittof)  passed  by 
my  door  the  day  before  yesterday,  under  a  strong 
guard.  So  I  am  told,  for  I  did  not  see  him,  and 
nobody  hereabouts  is  acquainted  with  his  person. 
The  soldiers  escorting  him,  it  seems,  indulged  his 
aversion  to  be  publicly  known,  and  to  guard  against 
inquiry  as  much  as  possible  he  was  accoutred  in  a 
shabby  suit  of  homespun,  with  an  old  white  hat 
flapped  over  his  face,  the  dress  in  which  he  was  ap 
prehended.  From  the  description,  and  indeed  the 
confession  of  the  commanding  officer  to  one  of  my 
neighbors,  I  have  no  doubt  it  was  Burr  himself. 
His  very  manner  of  travelling,  although  under  arrest, 
was  characteristi  ;  of  the  man,  enveloped  in  mystery." 

The  arrival  of  Burr  at  Richmond  led  to  the 
summons  of  a  grand  jury,  on  which  Randolph 
served.  Thus  he  was  brought  in  contact  with 
a  new  object  of  intense  aversion,  the  famous 
General  Wilkinson,  who,  for  twenty  years,  had 
played  fast  and  loose  with  treason,  and  who,  at 
the  last  moment,  saved  Mr.  Jefferson's  admin 
istration  from  a  very  serious  danger  by  turning 
against  Burr.  Randolph  could  not  think  of 
the  man  henceforward  with  ordinary  patience 


" A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  221 

and  perhaps  his  irritation  was  a  little  due  to 
the  fact  that  Wilkinson's  vices  had  so  much 
helped  to  cover  what  he  believed  to  be  Mr. 
Jefferson's  blunders. 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"RICHMOND,  25  June,  1807.  .  .  .  Yesterday  the 
grand  jury  found  bills  of  treason  and  misdemeanor 
against  Burr  and  Blennerhassett,  una  voce,  and  this 
day  presented  Jonathan  Dayton,  ex-senator,  John 
Smith  of  Ohio,  Comfort  Tyler,  Israel  Smith  of  New 
York,  and  Davis  Floyd  of  Indiana,  for  treason.  But 
the  mammoth  of  iniquity  escaped  ;  not  that  any  man 
pretended  to  think  him  innocent,  but  upon  certain 
wire-drawn  distinctions  that  I  will  not  pester  you 
with.  Wilkinson  is  the  only  man  that  I  ever  saw 
who  was  from  the  bark  to  the  very  core  a  villain.  .  .  . 
Perhaps  you  never  saw  human  nature  in  so  degraded 
a  situation  as  in  the  person  of  Wilkinson  before  the 
grand  jury,  and  yet  this  man  stands  on  the  very  summit 
and  pinnacle  of  executive  favor,  whilst  James  Monroe 
is  denounced.  As  for  such  men  as  the  quids  you  speak 
of,  I  should  hardly  think  his  Majesty  would  stoop  to 
such  humble  quarry,  when  James  Monroe  was  in 
view.  Tazewell,  who  is  writing  on  the  other  side  of 
the  table,  and  whom  you  surely  remember,  says  that 
he  makes  the  fifth.  The  other  four  you  have  not 
mistaken.  My  friend,  I  am  standing  on  the  soil  of 
my  native  country,  divested  of  every  right  for  which 
our  fathers  bled.  Politics  have  usurped  the  place  of 
law,  and  the  scenes  of  1798  are  again  revived.  Men 


222  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

now  see  and  hear,  and  feel  and  think,  politically. 
Maxims  are  now  advanced  and  advocated,  which 
would  almost  have  staggered  the  effrontery  of  Bayard 
or  the  cooler  impudence  of  Chauncy  Goodrich,  when 
we  were  first  acquainted.  But  enough  of  this  !  It 
will  not  be  long,  I  presume,  before  I  shall  see  you 
again.  The  news  of  the  capture  of  the  Chesapeake 
arrived  this  morning,  and  I  suppose  the  President 
will  convene  Congress,  of  course.  I  have  been  look 
ing  for  something  of  this  sort  ever  since  the  change 
of  ministry  and  rejection  of  the  treaty  was  announced. 
I  have  tried  to  avert  from  my  country  a  war  which  I 
foresaw  must  succeed  the  follies  of  1805-6,  but  I 
shall  not  be  the  less  disposed  to  withdraw  her  from 
it  or  carry  her  through  with  honor." 

The  President  did  not  ^  immediately  convene 
Congress.  With  great  wisdom  and  forbearance, 
accepting  the  British  Minister's  disavowal  of 
the  Chesapeake  outrage,  he  waited  to  hear 
from  England,  only  issuing  a  proclamation  to 
exclude  the  British  ships  of  war  from  our  har 
bors.  Congress  was  called  together  for  October 
26,  and  Randolph  then  appeared  at  Washington 
in  a  temper  bad  even  for  him.  The  northern 
democrats  controlled  everything.  Macon  was 
obliged  to  decline  being  a  candidate  for  the 
speakership ;  Varnum  of  Massachusetts  was  put 
in  the  chair,  and  his  first  act  was  to  appoint 
George  W.  Campbell  of  Tennessee,  "that prince 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A  CURSE."  223 

of  prigs  and  puppies,"  chairman  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  Committee.  Randolph  showed  his 
temper  on  the  very  first  day  by  bringing  a 
charge  against  Nicholas  B.  Vanzandt,  the  reg 
ular  candidate  for  clerk  of  the  House,  too  sud- 
*  denly  and  positively  for  contradiction,  which 
caused  Vanzandt  to  be  defeated  and  disgraced. 
The  man  happened  to  be  a  prot6g6  of  Mrs. 
Madison.  That  Randolph  should  have  been 
beside  himself  with  rage  and  mortification  is 
natural  enough,  for  he  could  no  longer  doubt 
the  odium  in  which  he  had  involved  himself 
and  even  his  friend  Macon,  who,  dazzled  by 
his  wit  and  overawed  by  his  will,  found  him 
self  isolated  and  shunned,  dropped  from  the 
speakership,  and  at  cross-purposes  with  his 
party.  The  spell  was  now  at  an  end,  and 
Macon,  although  retaining  friendly  relations 
with  Randolph,  hastened  at  this  session  to  draw 
away  from  him  in  politics,  and  gave  an  almost 
unqualified  support  to  the  administration.  Mr. 
Jefferson,  with  his  usual  dexterity,  had  already 
reduced  Randolph's  influence  in  the  House  by 
providing  his  ally,  Nicholson,  with  a  seat  on  the , 
bench,  and  Nicholson  probably  welcomed  this 
means  of  escape  from  a  position  which  Ran 
dolph  had  made  so  uncomfortable.  Within  a 
few  weeks  more  Randolph  succeeded  in  making 
himself  a  mere  laughing  stock  for  his  enemies. 


224  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Even  Macon  and  Nicholson  were  obliged  to 
agree  that  recovery  of  his  influence  was  scarcely 
possible.  The  story  of  this  last  and  fatal  ec 
centricity,  hardly  mentioned  by  his  biographers, 
merits  a  place  here  as  further  evidence  of  that 
irrationality  which  made  his  opinions  worthless, 
and  his  political  course  for  ten  years  to  come 
little  more  than  a  series  of  wayward  impulses. 

He  had  been  vehement  in  regard  to  the  Ches 
apeake  outrage,  and  considered  Mr.  Jefferson's 
cautious  measures  very  insufficient.  Nicholson 
had  called  his  attention  to  Lord  Chatham's 
Falkland  Island  speech,  and  he  wrote  from  Bi 
zarre,  in  reply,  as  follows,  July  21,  1807 : — 

RANDOLPH   TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  I  have  indulged  myself  in  reading  once  more  the 
speech  to  which  you  allude.  It  is  the  inspiration  of 
divine  wisdom,  and  as  such  I  have  ever  adored  it. 
But,  my  good  friend,  I  cannot  with  you  carry  my 
zeal  so  i'ar  as  to  turn  missionary  and  teach  the  gos 
pel  of  politics  to  the  heathens  of  Washington.  More 
easily  might  a  camel  pass  through  a  needle's  eye 
than  one  particle  of  the  spirit  of  Chatham  be  driven 
into  that  '  trembling  council,'  to  whom  the  destinies 
of  this  degraded  country  are  unhappily  confided.  .  .  . 
But  great  God!  what  can  you  expect  from  men 
who  take  Wilkinson  to  their  bosoms,  and  at  the  same 
time  are  undermining  the  characters  of  Monroe  and 
Macon,  and  plotting  their  downfall!  There  is  but 


"  A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  225 

one  sentiment  here,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  on  the  sub 
ject  of  the  late  outrage  :  that,  as  soon  as  the  fact  was 
ascertained,  Congress  should  have  been  convened,  a 
strict  embargo  laid,  Erskine  [the  British  Minister] 
sent  home,  our  Ministers  recalled,  and  then  we  might 
begin  to  deliberate  on  the  means  of  enforcing  our 
rights  and  extorting  reparation.  The  Proclamation 
(or,  as  I  term  it,  the  apology)  is  received  rather 
coldly  among  us.  Many  persons  express  themselves 
much  mortified  at  it.  Every  one  I  see  asks  what  gov 
ernment  means  to  do,  and  I  might  answer,  l  What 
they  have  always  done  ;  nothing  !'...!  should  not 
be  surprised,  however,  if  the  Drone  or  Humble  Bee, 
(the  Wasp  has  sailed  already)  should  be  dispatched 
with  two  millions  (this  is  our  standing  first  bid)  to 
purchase  Nova  Scotia,  and  then  we  might  go  to  war 
in  peace  and  quiet  to  ascertain  its  boundaries." 

So  soon  as  Congress  met,  Randolph  hastened 
to  proclaim  these  sentiments,  with  additions  of 
startling  import,  rivalling  Mr.  Crowninshield's 
projected  triumphs.     Not  only  should  Congress 
have  been  immediately  convened,  and  our  Min 
isters  in  London,  Pinkney  and  Monroe,  recalled, 
after  requiring  full  measures  of  redress,  which 
were  to  be  sent  over  by  a  special  envoy;  not 
only  should  the  nation  have  been  put  into  a 
posture  of  defence;  but,  «  redress  being  refused, 
instant  retaliation  should  have  been  taken  on 
the  offending  party.    I  would  have  invaded  Can 
ada  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  made  a  descent  on 

15 


226  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Jamaica.  I  would  have  seized  upon  Canada  and 
Nova  Scotia  as  pledges  to  be  retained  against  a 
future  pacification,  until  we  had  obtained  ample 
redress  for  our  wrongs."  This  was  soaring  on 
the  wings  of  Chatham,  and  indeed  it  would 
have  been  necessary  to  soar  on  some  wings, 
if  Randolph  meant  to  attack  Nova  Scotia  and 
Jamaica.  Redress  was  refused ;  for,  although 
the  British  government  disavowed  the  attack 
on  the  Chesapeake,  the  men  were  not  returned, 
but  either  hanged,  or  kept  in  jail  for  the  next 
four  years.  Randolph,  however,  instead  of  con 
tinuing  to  demand  redress,  or  seizing  upon  Can- 
.ada  and  Nova  Scotia,  declared  that  he  would 
not,  without  great  reluctance,  vote  money  for 
the  maintenance  of  "  our  degraded  and  dis 
graced  navy." 

A  few  weeks  after  this  tirade,  news  arrived 
of  fresh  aggressions  from  England  and  France  ; 
the  Berlin  Decree  was  to  be  enforced,  and  the 
Orders  in  Council  were  to  be  issued  without  de 
lay.  The  next  day  the  President  sent  down  a 
confidential  message  asking  for  an  embargo, 
and  the  House  went  at  once  into  secret  session. 
What  passed  there  is  only  partially  known,  but 
it  was  asserted  by  Mr.  Fisk  of  Vermont,  in 
a  speech  made  later  in  the  session,  that  there 
had  been  a  scramble  between  Randolph  and 
Crowninshield  as  to  who  should  have  the  honor 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A  CURSE."  227 

first  to  propose  the  measure,  and  Randolph 
urged  expedition,  as  he  had  a  bill  ready  pre 
pared.  Certain  it  is  that  Randolph  got  the 
better  of  Crowninshield,  and  his  resolution  or 
dering  an  embargo  stands  on  the  secret  journal 
of  the  House.  A  bill  for  the  same  purpose  just 
then  came  down  from  the  Senate,  and  Ran 
dolph,  after  supporting  it  on  December  18  as 
the  only  measure  which  could  promote  the  na 
tional  interests,  rose  on  December  19  to  oppose 
it  as  partial,  unconstitutional,  a  new  invention, 
and  he  alleged  as  his  strongest  objection  that 
it  was  expressly  aimed  at  Great  Britain.  He 
voted  against  it. 

This  last  somersault  was  more  than  even 
Macon  and  Nicholson  could  understand.  Nich 
olson  wrote,  in  astonishment,  to  ask  what  it 
meant,  and  Randolph's  reply  and  defence  are 
worth  reading :  — 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  December  24,  1807.  .  .  .  Come  here,  I  beseech 
you.  I  will  then  show  you  how  impossible  it  was 
for  me  to  have  voted  for  the  embargo.  The  circum 
stances  under  which  it  presented  itself  were  peculiar 
and  compelled  me  to  oppose  it,  although  otherwise  a 
favorite  measure  with  me,  as  you  well  know.  It  was, 
in  fact,  to  crouch  to  the  insolent  mandate  of  Bona 
parte  '  that  there  should  be  no  neutrals  ; '  to  subscribe 
to  that  act  of  perfidy  and  violence,  his  decree,  at  the 


228  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

moment  when  every  consideration  prompted  us  to  re 
sist  and  resent  it.  Non-importation  and  non-exporta 
tion,  —  what  more  can  he  require  ?  Ought  we  to 
have  suffered  ourselves  to  be  driven  by  him  out  of 
the  course  which,  whether  right  or  wrong,  our  gov 
ernment  had  thought  proper  to  pursue  towards  Eng 
land  ?  to  be  dragooned  into  measures  that  in  all 
human  calculation  must  lead  to  immediate  war  ?  Put 
no  trust  in  the  newspaper  statements.  They  will 
mislead  you.  But  come  and  view  the  ground,  and  I 
will  abide  the  issue  of  your  judgment." 

To  Nicholson,  then,  Randolph  did  not  plead 
the  unconstitutionally  of  the  embargo  or  its  bad 
influence  as  a  stretch  of  centralized  power.  To 
announce  such  a  discovery  to  Nicholson  would 
have  been  ridiculous,  after  both  of  them  had  for 
two  years  insisted  on  an  embargo  as  the  wisest 
of  possible  measures.  Only  the  immediate  cir 
cumstances  excused  the  vote,  the  wish  not  to 
act  partially  against  England,  the  very  power 
which  had  just  declared  war  on  our  commerce, 
after  having  committed  that  outrage,  disavowed 
but  not  yet  redressed,  which  had  caused  Ran 
dolph  only  a  few  weeks  before,  to  urge  an  at 
tack  upon  Canada. 

Such  a  combination  of  contradictions  and  in 
consistencies  was  enough  to  destroy  the  weight 
of  Pitt  or  Peel;  no  reputation,  least  of  all  one 
so  indifferent  as  Randolph's,  could  stagger  under 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  229 

it.  He  still  hoped  to  retrieve  his  fortunes  by 
securing  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Madison,  but  to  do 
so  he  was  now  obliged  to  keep  himself  in 
the  background,  for  fear  of  hurting  Monroe's 
chances  by  coupling  them  with  his  own  unpop 
ularity.  Just  at  this  moment  Monroe  reached 
America,  and  Randolph  was  reduced  to  see  him 
by  stealth.  The  same  day  on  which  he  wrote 
to  Nicholson  to  excuse  his  course  about  the  em 
bargo  he  wrote  also  to  Monroe,  asking  an  in 
terview  :  — 

RANDOLPH   TO    MONROE. 

"  December  24,  1807.  My  dear  Sir,  —  In  abstain 
ing  so  long  from  a  personal  interview  with  you,  I 
leave  you  to  judge  what  violence  I  have  committed 
upon  my  private  feelings.  Before  your  arrival,  how 
ever,  I  had  determined  on  the  course  which  I  ought 
to  pursue,  and  had  resolved  that  no  personal  gratifi 
cation  should  induce  me  to  hazard  your  future  ad 
vancement,  and  with  it  the  good  of  my  country,  by 
any  attempt  to  blend  the  fate  of  a  proscribed  individ 
ual  with  the  destiny  which,  I  trust,  awaits  you.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  of  the  first  consequence  to  us  both  that 
I  should  have  a  speedy  opportunity  of  communing 
fully  with  you.  This,  perhaps,  can  be  best  effected 
at  my  own  lodgings,  where  we  shall  not  be  exposed 
to  observation  or  interruption.  I  shall,  however, 
acquiesce  with  pleasure  in  any  other  arrangement 
which  may  appear  more  eligible  to  you. 

"  Yrs.  unalterably." 


230  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

This  coquetry  between  Monroe  and  Randolph 
continued  all  winter,  while  Randolph's  friends 
were  making  ready  to  nominate  Monroe  for 
the  presidency.  To  prevent  the  nomination  of 
Madison  was  no  longer  possible ;  all  that  could 
be  done  was  to  make  independent  nominations 
of  Monroe  in  Virginia,  and  of  George  Clinton 
in  New  York,  on  the  chance  of  defeating  Mr. 
Madison,  and  substituting  the  stronger  of  his 
two  rivals  in  his  place.  The  Secretary,  how 
ever,  overbore  all  opposition.  Giles  and  W. 
C.  Nicholas  managed  his  canvass  in  Virginia, 
and  on  January  21,  1808,  a  large  caucus  of  the 
Virginia  legislature  nominated  him  for  the  pres 
idency.  Two  days  later,  at  a  congressional 
caucus  called  by  Senator  Bradley  of  Vermont, 
eighty-three  senators  and  members  confirmed 
the  action  of  Virginia.  Macon,  Randolph,  and 
all  the  "old republicans"  held  themselves  aloof 
from  both  caucuses,  but  all  they  could  do  for 
Monroe  was  to  give  him  a  weak  independent 
nomination. 

How  far  Mr.  Monroe  made  himself  a  party  to 
this  transaction  is  not  quite  clear.  There  is, 
however,  no  doubt  that  he  was  in  full  sympa 
thy  with  the  old  republicans  against  Mr.  Madi 
son,  and  Randolph's  letters  imply %  that  his  syrn 
pathy  was  more  than  passive. 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  231 

RANDOLPH    TO    MONROE. 

"  GEORGETOWN,  March  9,  1808.  ...  A  con 
sciousness  of  the  misconstruction  (to  your  prejudice) 
which  would  be  put  upon  any  correspondence  between 
us  has  hitherto  deterred  me  from  writing.  You  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  my  motives  in  putting 
this  violence  upon  my  feelings,  especially  after  the 
explanation  which  I  gave  of  them  whilst  you  were 
here.  The  prospect  before  us  is  daily  brightening. 
I  mean  of  the  future,  which  until  of  late  has  been 
extremely  gloomy.  As  to  the  present  state  of  things, 
it  is  far  beyond  my  powers  to  give  an  adequate  de 
scription  of  it.  Mr.  W.  C.  N.  begins  of  late  to 
make  open  advances  to  the  federalists,  fearing,  no 
doubt,  that  the  bait  of  hypocrisy  has  been  seen  through 
by  others.  I  must  again  refer  you  to  Mr.  Leigh  for 
full  information  of  what  is  going  on  here.  The  in 
discretion  of  some  of  the  weaker  brethren,  whose 
intentions,  I  have  no  doubt,  were  good,  as  you  will 
have  perceived,  has  given  the  enemy  great  advantage 
over  us." 

"  GEORGETOWN,  March  26,  1808.  .  .  .  Among 
the  events  of  my  public  life,  and  especially  those 
which  have  grown  out  of  the  last  two  years,  no  cir 
cumstance  has  inspired  such  keen  regret  as  that  which 
has  begotten  the  necessity  of  the  reserve  between  us 
to  which  you  allude  ?  not  that  I  have  been  insensible 
to  the  cogent  motives  to  such  a  demeanor  on  both 
sides  ;  far  from  it ;  I  must  have  been  blind  not  to  have 
perceived  them.  They  suggested  themselves  at  a  very 


232  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

early  period  to  my  mind,  and  my  conduct  was  accord 
ingly  regulated  by  them.  But  there  are  occasions 
in  life,  and  this,  with  me,  was  one  of  them,  in  which 
necessity  serves  but  to  embitter  instead  of  resigning 
our  feelings  to  her  rigid  dispensations.  I  leave  you 
then  to  judge  with  what  avidity  I  shall  seize  the  op 
portunity  of  renewing  our  intercourse  when  the  causes 
which  have  given  birth  to  its  suspension  shall  have 
ceased  to  exist,  since  amongst  the  enjoyments  which 
life  has  afforded  me  there  are  few,  very  few,  which 
I  value  in  comparison  with  the  possession  of  your 
friendship.  In  a  little  while  I  shall  quit  the  political 
theatre,  probably  forever,  and  I  shall  carry  with  me 
into  retirement  none  of  the  surprise  and  not  much  of 
the  regret  excited  by  the  blasting  effects  of  ministerial 
artifice  and  power  upon  my  public  character,  should  I 
find,  as  I  fear  I  shall,  that  they  have  been  enabled  to 
reach  even  your  own." 

The  worst  trait  of  these  insidious  attempts 
to  poison  Monroe's  mind  was  not  their  insinu 
ations,  but  their  transparent  character  of  re 
venge.  Monroe  was  one  tool,  and  Clinton  an 
other  ;  both  equally  used  by  Randolph,  not  to 
forward  his  own  views  of  public  good,  but  to 
pull  down  Mr.  Madison.  If  there  was  nothing 
in  Monroe's  character  or  career  which  could 
lead  any  sensible  man  to  believe  him  truer  than 
Madison  to  the  forgotten  traditions  of  his  party, 
there  was  everything  in  George  Clinton's  his 
tory  to  prove  that  he  was  a  blind  agent  of  the 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  233 

northern  democracy.  His  late  career  as  Gov 
ernor  of  New  York  had  been  notoriously  and 
scandalously  controlled  by  his  nephew  DeWitt, 
and  the  selfishness  of  DeWitt  Clinton  was  such 
that  to  trust  in  his  hands  the  fortunes  of  "  old 
republicanism "  would  have  been  one  degree 
more  ridiculous  than  to  trust  them,  as  Ran 
dolph  did  twenty  years  afterwards,  to  the 
tender  sympathies  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Not 
patriotism,  but  revenge,  inspired  Randolph's 
passion ;  the  impulse  to  strike  down  those  whom 
he  chose  to  hate.  As  he  worked  on  Monroe's 
wounded  pride  to  make  of  it  a  weapon  against 
Madison,  so  he  incited  and  urged  the  friends  of 
Monroe  in  other  States  to  devote  themselves  to 
the  interests  of  Clinton.  Tims  he  wrote  to 
Nicholson  to  stir  up  Maryland. 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  February  20,  1808.  .  .  .  Our  friend  gains  ground 
very  fast  at  home.  Sullivan,  the  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  has  declared  against  M[adiso]n.  The  re 
publicans  of  that  great  State  are  divided  on  the  ques 
tion,  and  if  Clay  be  not  deceived,  who  says  that 
Pennsylvania,  Duane  non  obstante,  will  be  decidedly 
for  the  V[ice]  President],  the  Secretary]  of  S[tate] 
has  no  chance  of  being  elected.  Impress  this,  I  pray 
you,  on  our  friends.  If  the  V.  P.'s  interest  should 
be  best,  our  electors  (in  case  we  succeed)  will  not 
hazard  everything  by  a  division.  If  the  election 


234  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

comes  to  the  House  of  Representatives  M[adiso]u  is 
the  man." 

"  March  24,  1808.  .  .  .  Lloyd  says  that  the  oppo 
nents  of  Madison  in  Maryland  and  in  Baltimore  par 
ticularly  are  unnerved ;  that  they  are  timid,  and  that 
unless  the  V[ice]  P[resident]'s  friends  exert  them 
selves  all  is  lost  in  your  State  ;  that  if  yourself  were  to 
go  to  Queen  Anne's  and  make  known  your  support  of 
C[linton]  it  would  decide  the  Eastern  Shore.  This 
I  am  certain  you  will  do,  as  well  as  everything  else 
in  your  power  to  promote  the  cause.  It  is  necessary 
to  speak  and  to  speak  out ;  especially  those  who  justly 
possess  the  public  confidence,  which  you  do  in  a  most 
eminent  degree." 

At  the  same  time  he  was  consumed  by  a 
feverish  impulse  to  thrust  himself  forward  in 
the  House.  Thus  he  lost  prestige  with  every 
day  that  passed.  As  the  session  drew  to  its 
close,  and  his  obstructive  temper  became  more 
and  more  evident,  Macon  wrote  to  Nicholson 
bewailing  it,  but  confessing  the  impossibility 
of  controlling  him  :  — 

"  I  am  really  afraid  that  our  friend  K.  will  injure 
himself  with  the  nation  in  this  way.  An  attempt  is 
now  making,  and  will,  I  think,  be  continued,  to  impress 
on  the  minds  of  the  people  that  he  speaks  with  a 
view  to  waste  time.  If  this  opinion  should  prevail,  it 
will,  I  fear,  injure  not  only  him,  but  the  nation  also, 
because  what  injures  him  in  public  estimation  will  in 
jure  the  people  also.  His  talents  and  honesty  cannot 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A  CURSE."  235 

be  lost  without  a  loss  equal  to  them  both,  and  they 
cannot  be  ascertained.  But  you  know  him  as  well  as 
I  do." 

This  was  written  on  April  14, 1808  ;  the  ses 
sion  closed  on  the  25th,  and  on  June  1  Macon 
wrote  again  :  — 

"  Madison,  I  still  think,  will  be  the  next  President. 
If  the  New  Yorkers  mean  to  run  Clinton  in  good 
earnest,  as  we  country  people  say,  it  is  time  they  had 
begun.  The  Madisonians  will  not  lose  anything  by 
neglect  or  indolence.  They  may  overact  their  part, 
and,  in  their  zeal  to  keep  Randolph  down,  may  make 
some  lukewarm  about  Madison.  If  R.  had  stuck  to 
the  embargo,  he  would  have  been  up,  in  spite  of 
them." 

All  the  efforts  of  Randolph  and  his  friends  to 
defeat  Mr.  Madison  vanished  in  thin  smoke. 
When  November  arrived,  there  was  little  or  no 
opposition ;  Virginia  was  solid  in  his  support, 
and  he  received  122  out  of  175  electoral  votes, 
the  full  strength  of  his  party,  except  six  votes 
for  Clinton  in  New  York.  His  first  act  as  Presi 
dent  justified  in  Randolph's  eyes  the  worst  that 
had  ever  been  said  of  him.  Allowing  himself  to 
,be  dragooned  by  Giles  and  General  Smith  into 
abandoning  Mr.  Gallatin,  his  first  choice  for 
Secretary  of  State,  President  Madison  nomi 
nated  for  that  office  Robert  Smith,  whose  ad 
ministration  of  the  navy  had  been  a  scandal  not 


236  JOHN  RANDOLPH, 

only  to  Randolph,  but  to  Gallatin.  Thus  at  the 
outset  the  new  administration  was  thrown  into 
the  hands  of  a  selfish  faction,  which  proclaimed 
their  contempt  for  old  republican  principles  to 
every  one  who  would  listen.  Gallatin  alone, 
without  courage  or  hope,  tried  to  persevere  in 
the  old  path. 

To  pursue  Randolph's  course  farther  through 
the  meanderings  of  his  -opposition  would  be 
waste  of  time.  He  at  last  convinced  himself 
that  his  own  party  was  not  less  extravagant  and 
dangerous  than  those  federalists  whose  doctrines 
he  had  begun  by  so  furiously  denouncing.  To 
discover  that  one  has  made  so  vast  a  blunder 
is  fatal  to  elevation  of  purpose ;  under  the  reac 
tion  of  such  disappointment,  no  man  can  keep 
a  steady  course.  The  iron  entered  Randolph's 
soul.  Now  for  the  first  time  his  habits  became 
bad,  and  at  intervals,  until  his  death,  he  drank 
to  excess.  After  days  or  weeks  of  indulgence, 
during  which  the  liquor  served  only  to  give  him 
more  vivacity,  he  seemed  suddenly  to  sink  under 
it,  and  remained  in  a  state  of  prostration  until 
his  system  reacted  from  the  abuse.  Probably 
in  consequence  of  this  license  his  mind  showed 
signs  of  breaking  down.  He  was  at  times  dis 
tinctly  irrational,  though  never  quite  incapable 
of  self-control.  His  health  began  to  give  way; 
his  lungs  became  affected ;  his  digestive  organs 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  237 

were  ruined  ;  erratic  gout,  as  the  doctors  called 
it,  ran  through  his  system.  Nevertheless,  he 
returned  every  autumn  to  Washington,  and, 
although  isolated  and  powerless,  he  found  a 
sort  of  dismal  pleasure  in  watching  the  evils 
he  could  no  longer  prevent  or  cure. 

In  abandoning  Jefferson,  Madison,  Giles,  W. 
C.  Nicholas,  and  the  whole  band  of  his  old  co 
adjutors,  Randolph  had  still  shown  some  degree 
of  shrewdness  in  trying  to  retain  the  respect  and 
support  of  Monroe.  So  long  as  Monroe,  Taze- 
well,  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  and  a  few  more 
respectable  Virginians,  stood  apart  from  the 
administration  and  professed  old  republican 
principles,  Randolph  was  not  quite  deserted. 
There  was  always  a  chance  that  he  and  his 
friends  might  come  back  to  power,  and  there  is  a 
certain  historical  interest  in  the  quarrel  which 
at  last  separated  him  even  from  Monroe,  and 
left  him  hopeless  and  desperate. 

Mr.  Madison's  cabinet  was  from  the  first  a 
failure.  Gallatin.  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  stood  alone  as  the  representative  of  old  re 
publicanism,  although  only  on  its  economical 
side,  and  Gallatin 's  struggle  to  prevent  the 
Treasury  from  being  plundered  by  factions 
under  the  Smiths  and  Giles  was  patient  and 
prolonged.  Two  years  passed,  during  which  it 
was  easy  to  see  that  Mr.  Madison  grew  stead- 


238  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

ily  weaker,  while  Duane,  Giles,  General  Smilii, 
old  Vice- President  Clinton,  and  a  score  of  other 
personal  enemies  were  straining  every  nerve  to 
break  him  down  by  driving  Gallatin  from  the 
Treasury.  In  the  event  of  Gallatin's  defeat, 
as  in  that  of  his  victory,  Randolph  might  expect 
to  find  himself  once  more  acting  with  a  large 
party,  and  with  good  hopes  of  reasonable  suc 
cess.  To  wait  the  crisis  and  to  use  it  was  an 
easy  task,  for  he  had  but  to  hold  his  tongue 
and  to  support  his  friends.  Unfortunately  he 
could  do  neither. 

Some  extracts  from  his  letters  to  Nicholson, 
to  whom,  as  a  connection  of  Gallatin's  by  mar 
riage,  he  wrote  strongly  as  the  crisis  approached, 
will  best  show  how  deep  an  interest  he  felt  in 
the  result. 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  GEORGETOWN,  February  14,  1811.  ...  For 
some  days  past  I  have  been  attending  the  debates  in 
the  Senate.  Giles  made  this  morning  the  most  unin 
telligible  speech  on  the  subject  of  the  Bank  of  the 
U.  S.  that  I  ever  heard.  He  spoke  upwards  of  two 
hours,  seemed  never  to  understand  himself  (except 
upon  one  commonplace  topic,  of  British  influence), 
and  consequently  excited  in  his  hearers  no  other  sen 
timent  but  pity  or  disgust.  But  I  shall  not  be  sur 
prised  to  see  him  puffed  in  all  the  newspapers  of  a 
certain  faction.  The  Senate  have  rejected  the  nom- 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  239 

ination  of  Alex.  Wolcott  to  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  —  24  to  9.  The  President  is  said  to  have  felt 
great  mortification  at  this  result.  The  truth  seems 
to  be  that  he  is  President  de  jure  only.  Who  exer 
cises  the  office  de  facto  I  know  not,  but  it  seems 
agreed  on  all  hands  that  there  is  something  behind 
the  throne  greater  than  the  throne  itself.  I  cannot 
help  differing  with  you  respecting  [Gallatinjs  resig 
nation.  If  his  principal  will  not  support  him  by  his 
influence  against  the  cabal  in  the  ministry  itself  as 
well  as  out  of  it,  a  sense  of  self-respect,  it  would  seem 
to  me,  ought  to  impel  him  to  retire  from  a  situation 
where,  with  a  tremendous  responsibility,  he  is  utterly 
destitute  of  power.  Our  cabinet  presents  a  novel 
spectacle  in  the  political  world ;  divided  against  itself, 
and  the  most  deadly  animosity  raging  between  its 
principal  members,  what  can  come  of  it  but  confusion, 
mischief,  and  ruin  !  Macon  is  quite  out  of  heart.  I 
am  almost  indifferent  to  any  possible  result.  Is  this 
wisdom  or  apathy  ?  I  fear  the  latter." 

"  Since  I  wrote  to  you  to-night,  Stanford  has  shown 
me  the  last  *  Aurora,'  a  paper  that  I  never  read ;  but 
I  could  not  refrain,  at  his  instance,  from  casting  my 
eyes  over  some  paragraphs  relating  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury.  Surely  under  such  circumstances 
Mr.  G[allatin]  can  no  longer  hesitate  how  to  act. 
It  appears  to  me  that  only  one  course  is  left  to  him, 
—  to  go  immediately  to  the  President,  and  to  demand 
either  the  dismisal  of  Mr.  [Smith]  or  his  own.  No 
man  can  doubt  by  whom  this  machinery  is  put  in 
motion.  There  is  no  longer  room  to  feign  ignorance, 


240  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

or  to  temporize.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  to  you  that 
I  am  not  through  you  addressing  myself  to  another. 
My  knowledge  of  the  interest  which  you  take,  not 
merely  in  the  welfare  of  Mr.  G.,  but  in  that  of  the 
State,  induces  me  to  express  myself  to  you  on  this 
subject.  I  wish  you  would  come  up  here.  There 
are  more  things  in  this  world  of  intrigue  than  you 
wot  of,  and  I  would  like  to  commune  with  you  upon 
some  of  them." 

"GEORGETOWN,  February  17,  1811.  ...  I  am 
not  convinced  by  your  representations  respecting 
[Gallatin],  although  they  are  not  without  weight. 
Surely  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  point  out  to  the 
President  the  impossibility  of  conducting  the  affairs 
of  the  government  with  such  a  counteraction  in  the 
very  Cabinet  itself,  without  assuming  anything  like  a 
disposition  to  dictate.  Things  as  they  are  cannot  go 
on  much  longer.  The  administration  are  now,  in  fact, 
aground,  at  the  pitch  of  high  tide,  and  a  spring  tide, 
too.  Nothing  remains  but  to  lighten  the  ship,  which 
a  dead  calm  has  hitherto  kept  from  going  to  pieces. 
If  the  cabal  succeed  in  their  present  projects,  and  I 
see  nothing  but  promptitude  and  decision  that  can 
prevent  it,  the  nation  is  undone.  The  state  of  affairs 
for  some  time  past  has  been  highly  favorable  to  their 
views,  which  at  this  very  moment  are  more  nattering 
than  ever.  I  am  satisfied  that  Mr.  G.  by  a  timely  re 
sistance  to  their  schemes  might  have  defeated  them 
and  rendered  the  whole  cabal  as  impotent  as  nature 
would  seem  to  have  intended  them  to  be  ;  for  in  point 
of  ability  (capacity  for  intrigue  excepted)  they  are  ut- 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  241 

terly  contemptible  and  insignificant.  I  do  assure  you, 
my  friend,  that  I  cannot  contemplate  the  present  con 
dition  of  the  country  without  the  gloomiest  presages. 
The  signs  of  the  times  are  of  the  most  direful  omen. 
The  system  cannot  continue,  if  system  it  may  be 
called,  and  we  seem  rushing  into  one  general  dissolu 
tion  of  law  and  morals.  Some  Didius,  I  fear,  is  soon 
to  become  the  purchaser  of  our  empire ;  but  in  what 
ever  manner  it  be  effected,  everything  appears  to  an 
nounce  the  coming  of  a  master.  Thank  God,  I  have 
no  children  ;  but  I  have  those  who  are  yet  dear  to  me, 
and  the  thoughts  of  their  being  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,  or,  what  is  worse,  sycophants  and 
time-servers  to  the  venal  and  corrupt  wretches  that 
are  to  be  the  future  masters  of  this  once  free  and 
happy  land,  fill  me  with  the  bitterest  indignation. 
Would  it  not  almost  seem  that  man  cannot  be  kept 
free  ;  that  his  ignorance,  his  cupidity,  and  his  base 
ness  will  countervail  the  effects  of  the  wisest  institu 
tions  that  disinterested  patriotism  can  plan  for  his 
security  and  happiness  ?  " 

"RICHMOND,  March,  10,  1811.  ...  I  could  not 
learn,  as  I  passed  through  Washington,  how  matters 
stood  respecting  G[allatin]  and  S[mith].  The  gen 
eral  impression  there  was  that  S[mith]  would  go 
out,  and  that  the  Department  of  State  would  be  of 
fered  to  Monroe.  I  do,  however,  doubt  whether 
Madison  will  be  able  to  meet  the  shock  of  the  '  Au 
rora,'  'Whig,'  'Enquirer,'  '  Boston  Patriot,'  etc.,  etc. ; 
and  it  is  highly  probable  that,  beaten  in  detail  by  the 
superior  activity  and  vigor  of  the  Smiths,  he  may 
16 


242  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

sink  ultimately  into  their  arms,  and  unquestionably 
will,  in  that  case,  receive  the  law  from  them.  I  know- 
not  why  I  should  think  so  much  on  this  subject,  but 
it  engrosses  my  waking  and  sleeping  thoughts." 

Now  came  the  long-looked-for  revolution 
which  should  have  restored  Randolph's  influ 
ence.  Whether  or  not  Gallatin  was  affected  by 
these  appeals,  certain  it  is  that  early  in  the 
month  of  March  he  resigned  his  office  ;  that 
Mr.  Madison  declined  to  accept  the  resignation, 
and  worked  up  his  courage  to  the  point  of  dis 
missing  Robert  Smith,  and  defying  the  senato 
rial  cabal  of  Giles,  Leib,  Samuel  Smith,  and 

;  Vice-President  Clinton.  On  March  20,  1811, 
the  President  wrote  to  Monroe,  offering  him  the 
Department  of  State,  and  with  it,  of  course,  the 

^prospect  of  succession  to  the  throne  itself.  On 
jthe  23d,  Monroe  accepted  the  offer.  The  "  old 
republicans "  once  more  saw  the  Executive 
wholly  in  their  hands. 

This  critical  moment,  when  everything  de 
pended  upon  harmony,  was  chosen  by  Randolph 
as  the  time  to  quarrel  with  Monroe,  as  he  had 
already  quarrelled  with  Madison  and  Jefferson. 
That  the  fault  was  altogether  his  own  is  not 
to  be  said,  for  in  truth  the  immediate  fault 
was  Monroe's.  Two  years  had  now  elapsed 
since  Monroe's  return  home  in  a  sort  of  dis 
grace  ;  he  was  poor  ;  he  was,  in  real  truth,  no 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  243 

more  fanatical  about  his  old  principles  than 
Madison  himself,  and  at  least  it  was  not  he 
who  had  drawn  up  the  Virginia  resolutions  of 
1798  ;  he  wanted  to  get  back  into  office  ;  his 
connection  with  Randolph  stood  in  his  way, 
and  it  is  probable  that  he  allowed  himself  to 
repudiate  this  influence  somewhat  too  openly. 
In  the  month  of  January,  1811,  Randolph  was 
at  Richmond,  and  heard  stories  to  this  effect. 
A  little  more  tact  or  less  pride  would  have 
made  him  patient  while  Monroe  was  climbing 
again  up  the  ladder  of  office ;  but  patience  was 
not  Randolph's  best  trait.  He  immediately 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  the  man  for  whose 
character  he  had  all  through  life  felt  so  pro 
found  reverence  and  such  affectionate  respect: 

RANDOLPH    TO    MONROE. 

BELT.  TAVERN,  Monday  Night, 
Jan.  14,  1811. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  The  habits  of  intimacy  which  have 
existed  between  us  make  it,  as  I  conceive,  my  duty  to 
inform  you  that  reports  are  industriously  circulated  in 
this  city  to  your  disadvantage.  They  are  to  this  effect : 
That  in  order  to  promote  your  election  to  the  Chief 
Magistracy  of  the  Commonwealth  you  have  descended 
to  unbecoming  compliances  with  the  members  of  the 
Assembly,  not  excepting  your  bitterest  personal  ene 
mies  ;  that  you  have  volunteered  explanations  to  them 
of  the  differences  heretofore  subsisting  between  your- 


244  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

self  and  administration  which  amount  to  a  derelic 
tion  of  the  ground  which  you  took  after  your  return 
from  England,  and  even  of  your  warmest  personal 
friends.  Upon  this,  although  it  is  unnecessary  for 
me  to  pass  a  comment,  yet  it  would  be  disingenuous 
to  conceal  that  it  has  created  unpleasant  sensations 
not  in  me  only,  but  in  others  whom  I  know  you 
justly  ranked  as  among  those  most  strongly  attached 
to  you.  I  wished  for  an  opportunity  of  mentioning 
this  subject  to  you,  but  none  offered  itself,  and  I 
would  not  seek  one,  because,  when  I  cannot  afford 
assistance  to  my  friends,  I  will  never  consent  to  be 
come  an  incumbrance  on  them.  I  write  in  haste,  and 
therefore  abruptly.  I  keep  no  copy,  and  have  only 
to  enjoin  on  you  that  this  communication  is  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  term  confidential,  solely  for  your 
own  eye.  Yours, 

JOHN  RANDOLPH  OF  ROANOKE. 

To  this  characteristic  assault  Mr.  Monroe 
responded  as  best  he  could.  He  sent  his  son- 
in-law,  George  Hay,  to  Randolph,  and  Randolph 
refused  to  talk  with  him.  He  wrote  to  John 
Taylor  of  Caroline,  and  to  Randolph  himself. 
Randolph's  final  reply  was  sent  from  Washing 
ton  precisely  at  the  time  of  the  cabinet  crisis, 
when  Monroe's  appointment  as  Secretary  of 
State  was  becoming  daily  more  certain. 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  245 

RANDOLPH    TO    MONROE. 

GEORGETOWN,  March  2,  1811. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  purposely  delayed  answering 
your  letters  because  you  seem  to  have  taken  up  the 
idea  that  I  labored  under  some  excitement  (of  an 
angry  nature  it  is  to  be  presumed  from  the  expres 
sions  employed  in  your  communication  to  Colonel 
Taylor,  as  well  as  in  that  to  myself),  and  I  was  desir 
ous  that  my  reply  should  in  appearance  as  well  as  in 
fact  proceed  from  the  calmest  and  most  deliberate  ex 
ercise  of  my  judgment. 

How  my  letters  in  Richmond  could  excite  an  un 
pleasant  feeling  in  your  bosom  towards  me  I  am 
wholly  at  a  loss  to  comprehend.  Let  me  beg  you  to 
review  them,  to  reflect  for  a  moment  on  the  circum 
stances  of  the  case,  and  then  ask  yourself  whether  I 
could  or  ought  to  have  done  otherwise  than  as  I  did 
in  apprising  you  of  the  reports  injurious  to  your  honor 
that  were  in  the  mouth  of  every  man  of  every  de 
scription  in  Richmond.  I  certainly  held  no  inter 
course  with  those  who  were  hostile  to  your  election, 
but  it  surely  required  no  power  of  inspiration  to  di 
vine  that,  when  such  language  was  held  by  your  own 
supporters,  those  to  whom  you  were  peculiarly  ob 
noxious  would  hardly  omit  to  make  a  handle  of  it  to 
injure  you.  You  may  well  feel  assured  that  no  man 
would  venture  to  approach  me  with  observations  di 
rectly  derogating  from  your  character. 

Those  who  spoke  to  me  on  the  subject  generally 
mentioned  it  as  a  source  of  real  regret  and  sorrow ;  a 


246  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

few  sounded  to  see  how  far  they  might  go,  and,  re 
ceiving  no  encouragement,  drew  off.  But  it  was  im 
possible  for  me  to  shut  my  ears  or  eyes  to  the  passing 
scene,  and  in  my  hearing  the  most  injurious  state 
ments  were  made,  with  which,  as  well  as  with  the 
general  impression  of  all  with  whom  I  conversed  in 
relation  to  them,  I  deemed  it  my  duty  to  acquaint 
you  ;  mutatis  mutandis,  I  should  have  expected  a 
similar  act  of  friendship  on  your  part. 

Ask  yourself  again,  my  dear  sir,  whether  your  cau 
tious  avoidance,  and  that  of  every  one  near  you,  of 
every  sort  of  communication  with  me,  and  of  every 
mark  of  accustomed  respect  and  friendship,  was  not 
in  itself  a  change  in  the  relation  between  us,  which 
nothing  on  my  part  could  have  given  the  least  occa 
sion  for  ;  and  whether  I  was  not  authorized  to  infer, 
as  well  as  the  public,  —  in  short,  whether  it  was  not 
intended  that  the  public  should  infer,  —  not  only  that 
all  political  connection,  but  that  all  communication, 
was  at  an  end  between  us. 

Under  these  circumstances,  is  it  my  conduct  or  your 
own  that  is  likely  to  put  a  stop  to  our  old  intercourse ; 
and  is  it  you  or  1  that  have  a  right  to  complain  of  the 
abandonment  of  the  old  ground  of  relation  that  ex 
isted  between  us  ?  Let  me  add  that  a  passage  in  your 
letter  to  Col.  Taylor  (I  mean  that  which  was  in  cir 
culation  at  Richmond)  respecting  the  motives  of  the 
minority  (with  whom  you  had  just  disavowed  all  po 
litical  connection  whatever)  has  been  deemed  by  many 
of  the  most  intelligent  among  them  as  a  just  cause  of 
complaint,  as  furnishing  to  their  persecutors  a  color 


"A  NUISANCE  AND  A   CURSE."  247 

able  pretext  for  renewing  and  persevering  in  the  most 
unpopular  and  odious  of  all  the  charges  that  have 
been  brought  against  them.  We  cannot  doubt  the 
sincerity  of  your  impression,  but  know  it  to  be  er 
roneous,  and  feel  it  to  be  injurious  to  us. 

And  now  let  me  declare  to  you,  which  I  do  with 
the  utmost  sincerity  of  heart,  that  during  the  period 
to  which  you  refer  I  never  felt  one  angry  emotion 
towards  you.  Concern  for  your  honor  and  character 
was  uppermost  in  my  thoughts.  A  determination  to 
adhere  to  the  course  of  conduct  which  my  own  sense 
of  propriety  and  duty  to  myself  pointed  out  had  al 
most  dwindled  into  a  secondary  consideration. 

Accept  my  earnest  wishes  for  your  prosperity  and 
happiness.  I  have  long  since  abandoned  all  thoughts 
of  politics  except  so  far  as  is  strictly  necessary  to  the 
execution  of  my  legislative  duty. 

Again  I  offer  you  my  best  wishes. 

JOHN  RANDOLPH  OF  ROANOKE. 

Thus  Randolph  bade  farewell  to  another 
President  that  was  to  be.  Three  weeks  after 
this  letter  was  written,  Monroe  was  Secretary 
of  State,  and  in  a  short  time  it  appeared  that, 
had  Randolph  not  abandoned  him,  he  had  cer 
tainly  been  quite  earnest  in  his  intention  to 
abandon  Randolph.  No  more  was  heard  of 
"  old  republican  "  principles  from  Monroe  until 
many  years  had  elapsed ;  but  within  a  short 
time  it  appeared  that  he  was  ready  to  accept,  if 
not  to  welcome,  what  Randolph  most  opposed, 


248  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

—  a  war  with  England,  loans,  navies,  armies, 
and  even  a  military  conscription. 

During  all  these  troubles  and  through  all 
manner  of  party  feuds,  personal  quarrels,  and 
hostile  intrigues,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he 
now  habitually  voted  with  the  federalists,  Ran 
dolph  succeeded  in  keeping  control  of  his  dis 
trict  and  in  securing  his  reelection  both  in  1809 
and  1811,  when  John  W.  Eppes  took  up  his 
residence  there  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
breaking  Randolph  down.  In  1813,  however, 
his  opposition  to  the  war  with  England  proved 
too  heavy  a  weight  to  carry,  and  Mr.  Eppes, 
after  a  sharp  contest,  defeated  him,  while  the 
u  Richmond  Enquirer  "  denounced  him  as  "  a 
nuisance  and  a  curse." 


CHAPTER  X. 

ECCENTRICITIES. 

IF  disappointment  and  sorrow  could  soften  a 
human  heart,  Randolph  had  enough  to  make 
him  tender  as  the  gentlest.  From  the  first, 
some  private  trouble  weighed  on  his  mind,  and 
since  he  chose  to  make  a  mystery  of  its  cause  a 
biographer  is  bound  to  respect  his  wish.  The 
following  letter  to  his  friend  Nicholson,  written 
probably  in  the  year  1805,  shows  his  feeling 
on  this  point :  — 

RANDOLPH    TO    NICHOLSON. 

"  Monday,  4  March.  Dear  Nicholson,  —  By  you 
I  would  be  understood  ;  whether  the  herd  of  man 
kind  comprehend  me  or  not,  I  care  not.  Yourself, 
the  Speaker,  and  Bryan  are,  of  all  the  world,  alone 
acquainted  with  my  real  situation.  On  that  subject  I 
have  only  to  ask  that  you  will  preserve  the  same  re 
serve  that  I  have  done.  Do  not  misunderstand  me, 
my  good  friend.  I  do  not  doubt  your  honor  or  dis 
cretion.  Far  from  it.  But  on  this  subject  I  am,  per 
haps,  foolishly  fastidious.  God  bless  you,  my  noble 
fellow.  I  shall  ever  hold  you  most  dear  to  my  heart." 


250  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

From  such  expressions  not  much  can  be 
safely  inferred.  Doubtless  he  imagined  his 
character  and  career  to  be  greatly  influenced 
by  one  event  or  another  in  his  life,  but  in  real 
ity  both  he  and  his  brother  Richard  seem 'to 
have  had  from  the  first  the  same  vehement,  ill- 
regulated  minds,  and  the  imagination  counted 
for  more  with  them  than  the  reality,  whatever 
it  was.  His  was  a  nature  that  would  have  made 
for  itself  a  hell  even  though  fate  had  put  a 
heaven  about  it.  Quarrelling  with  his  brother's 
widow,  he  left  Bizarre  to  bury  himself  in  a  poor 
corner  among  his  overseers  and  slaves  at  Roan- 
oke.  "  I  might  be  now  living  at  Bizarre,"  he 
wrote  afterwards,  "  if  the  reunion  of  his  [Rich 
ard's]  widow  with  the  [traducers  ?]  of  her  hus 
band  had  not  driven  me  to  Roanoke  ;  "  "a 
savage  solitude,"  he  called  it,  "  into  which  I 
have  been  driven  to  seek  shelter."  This  was 
in  1810.  He  had  already  quarrelled  with  his 
step-father,  Judge  Tucker,  as  kind-hearted  a 
man  as  ever  lived,  and  of  this  one-sided  quarrel 
we  have  an  account  which,  even  if  untrue,  is 
curious.  It  seems  that  Randolph  had  been  talk 
ing  violently  against  the  justice  and  policy  of 
the  law  which  passed  estates,  in  failure  of  di 
rect  heirs,  to  brothers  of  half-blood  ;  whereupon 
Judge  Tucker  made  the  indiscreet  remark, 
"  Why,  Jack,  you  ought  not  to  be  against  that 


ECCENTRICITIES.  251 

law,  for  you  know  if  you  were  to  die  without 
issue  you  would  wish  your  half-brothers  to  have 
your  estate."  "  I  '11  be  damned,  sir,  if  I  do 
know  it,"  said  Randolph,  according  to  the  story, 
and  from  that  day  broke  off  relations  with  his 
step-father.  In  1810  he  was  only  with  the  ut 
most  difficulty  dissuaded  by  his  counsel  from 
bringing  suit  against  Judge  Tucker  for  fraudu 
lent  management  of  his  estate  during  that  guar 
dianship  which  had  ended  more  than  fifteen 
years  before.  He  knew  that  the  charge  was 
false,  but  he  was  possessed  by  it.  Two  pas 
sions,  besides  that  for  drink,  were  growing  on 
him  with  age,  —  avarice  and  family  pride ; 
taken  together,  three  furies  worse  than  the 
cruelest  disease  or  the  most  crushing  disasters. 
Yet  disaster,  too,  was  not  wanting.  His  nephew 
St.  George,  Richard's  eldest  son,  deaf  and  dumb 
from  his  birth,  became  quite  irrational  in  1813, 
and  closed  his  days  in  an  asylum.  The  younger 
nephew,  Tudor,  whom  he  had  loved  as  much  as 
it  was  in  his  nature  to  love  any  one,  and  who 
was  to  be  the  representative  of  his  race,  fell  into 
a  hopeless  consumption  the  next  year,  and,  be 
ing  sent  abroad,  died  at  Cheltenham  in  1815. 
Thus  Randolph,  after  falling  out  with  his  step 
father  and  half-brothers,  after  quitting  Bizarre 
and  quarrelling  with  his  brother's  widow,  lost 
his  nephews,  failed  in  public  life,  and  was 


252  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

driven  from  his  seat  in  Congress.    Had  he  been 
an  Italian  he  would  have  passed  for  one  pos 
sessed  of  the  evil  eye,  one  who  brought  destruc 
tion  on  all  he  loved,  and  every  peasant  would 
have   secretly  made  the  sign  of   the  cross  on 
meeting   him.     His   defeat  by   Eppes   in   the 
spring  of  1813  disgusted  him  with  politics,  and 
he  visited  his  mortification  on  his  old  friends. 
Macoii  wrote  to  Nicholson  February  1, 1815:  — 
"  Jonathan  did  not  love  David  more  than  I  have 
Randolph,  arid  I  still  have  that  same  feeling  towards 
him,  but  somehow  or  other  I  am  constrained  from 
saying  [anything]  about  it  or  him,  unless  now  and 
then  to  defend  him  against  false  accusations,  or  what 
I  believe  to  be  such.     There  is  hardly  any  evil  that 
afflicts  one  more  than  the  loss  of  a  friend,  especially 
when  not  conscious  of  having  given  any  cause  for  it. 
I  cannot  account  for  the  coldness  with  which  you  say 
he  treated  you,  or  his  not  staying  at  your  house  while 
in    Baltimore.     Stanford    now   and    then    comes   to 
where  I  sit  in  the  House,  and  shows  me  a  letter  from 
R.  to  him,  which  is  all  I  see  from  him.     He  has  not 
wrote  to  me  since  he  left  Congress  [in  March,  1813], 
nor  I  but  once  to  him,  which  was  to  inclose  him  a 
book  of  his  that  I  found  in  the  city  when  I  came  to 
the  next  session.     I  have  said  thus  much  in  answer 
to  your  letter,  and  it  is  more  than  has  been  said  or 
written  to  any  other  person." 

The  sudden  and  hnppy  close  of  the  war  in 
January,  1815,  brought  about  a  curious  revolu- 


ECCENTRICITIES.  253 

,  tion  in  the  world  of  politics.  Everything  that 
had  happened  before  that  convulsion  seemed 
now  wiped  from  memory.  Men  once  famous 
and  powerful  were  forgotten;  men  whose  polit 
ical  sins  had  been  dark  and  manifold  were  for 
given  and  received  back  into  the  fold.  Among 
the  rest  was  Randolph.  He  recovered  his  seat 
in  the  spring  of  1815,  and  returned  to  Congress 
with  a  great  reputation  for  bold  and  sarcastic 
oratory.  He  came  back  to  a  new  world,  to  a 
government  which  had  been  strengthened  and 
nationalized  by  foreign  war  beyond  the  utmost 
hopes  of  Washington  or  John  Adams.  Mr. 
Jefferson's  party  was  still  in  power,  but  not  a 
thread  was  left  of  the  principles  with  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  started  on  his  career  in  1801. 
The  country  had  a  debt  compared  with  which 
that  of  the  federalist  administrations  was  light ; 
it  had  a  navy  which  was  now  more  popular  than 
ever  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  in  his  palmiest 
days,  and  an  army  which  Randolph  dared  no 
longer  call  "  ragamuffin  ;  "  the  people  had  faced 
the  awful  idea  of  conscription,  at  the  bidding  of 
James  Madison  and  James  Monroe,  two  men 
who  had  nearly  broken  up  the  Union,  in  1798, 
at  the  mere  suggestion  of  raising  half  a  dozen 
regiments ;  at  the  same  command  the  national 
bank  was  to  be  reestablished;  —  in  every  direc 
tion  states'  rights  were  trampled  on  ;  —  and  all 


254  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

this  had  been  done  by  Randolph's  old  friends 
and  his  own  party.  During  his  absence,  Con 
gress,  like  school-boys  whose  monitor  has  left 
the  room,  had  passed  the  bill  for  the  Yazoo 
compromise.  This  was  not  the  whole.  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  the  Supreme  Court  were 
at  work.  Their  decisions  were  rapidly  rivetting 
these  results  into  something  more  than  mere 
political  precedents  or  statute  law.  State  sov 
ereignty  was  crumbling  under  their  assaults, 
and  the  nation  was  already  too  powerful  for 
the  safety  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  old  age,  took  the  alarm, 
and  began  to  preach  a  new  crusade  against  the 
Supreme  Court  and  the  heresies  of  federal  prin 
ciples.  He  rallied  about  him  the  "  old  republi 
cans  "  of  1798.  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Monroe, 
Mr.  Gallatin  and  the  northern  democrats,  were 
little  disposed  to  betake  themselves  again  to 
that  uncomfortable  boat  which  they  had  gladly 
abandoned  for  the  broader  and  stauncher  deck 
of  the  national  ship  of  state  ;  but  William  B. 
Giles  was  ready  to  answer  any  bugle-call  that 
could  summon  him  back  to  the  Senate,  or  give 
him  another  chance  for  that  cabinet  office  which 
had  been  the  ambition  of  his  life  ;  and  John 
Randolph  was  at  all  times  ready  to  clap  on  again 
his  helmet  of  Mambrino  and  have  a  new  tilt  at 
the  windmill  which  had  once  already  demol- 


ECCENTRICITIES.  255 

ished  him.  If  Virginia  hesitated,  South  Caro 
lina  might  be  made  strong  in  the  faith,  and 
Georgia  was  undaunted  by  the  Yazoo  experi 
ence.  If  the  northern  democrats  no  longer 
knew  what  states'  rights  meant,  the  slave  power, 
which  had  grown  with  the  national  growth, 
could  be  organized  to  teach  them. 

Into  this  movement  Randolph  flung  himself 
headlong,  and  in  such  a  party  he  was  a  formi 
dable  ally.  Doubtless  there  was  much  about  him 
that  seemed  ridiculous  to  by-standers,  and  still 
more  that  not  only  seemed,  but  was,  irrational. 
Neither  his  oratory  nor  his  wit  would  have  been 
tolerated  in  a  northern  State.  To  the  cold 
blooded  New  Englander  who  did  not  love  ex 
travagance  or  eccentricity,  and  had  no  fancy 
for  plantation  manners,  Randolph  was  an  ob 
noxious  being.  Those  traits  of  character  and 
person  of  which  he  was  proud  as  evidence  of  his 
Pocahontas  and  Powhatan  ancestry,  they  in 
stinctively  attributed  to  an  ancestral  type  of 
a  different  kind.  It  was  not  the  Indian  whom 
they  saw  in  this  lean,  forked  figure,  with  its 
elongated  arms  and  long,  bony  forefinger, 
pointing  at  the  objects  of  his  aversion  as  with 
a  stick;  it  was  not  an  Indian  countenance  they 
recognized  in  this  parchment  face,  prematurely 
old  and  seamed  with  a  thousand  small  wrinkles ; 
in  that  bright,  sharply  sparkling  eye;  in  the 


256  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

flattering,  caressing  tone1  and  manner,  which 
suddenly,  with  or  without  provocation,  changed 
into  wanton  brutality.  The  Indian  owns  no 
such  person  or  such  temperament,  which,  if 
derived  from  any  ancestry,  belongs  to  an  order 
of  animated  beings  still  nearer  than  the  Indian 
to  the  jealous  and  predacious  instincts  of  dawn 
ing  intelligence. 

There  is  no  question  that  such  an  antagonist 
was  formidable.  The  mode  of  political  warfare 
at  first  adopted  by  instinct,  he  had  now  by  long 
experience  developed  into  a  science.  Terror 
was  the  favorite  resource  of  his  art,  and  he  had 
so  practised  as  to  have  reached  a  high  degree  of 
success  in  using  it.  He  began  by  completely 
mastering  his  congressional  district.  At  best, 
it  is  not  easy  for  remote,  sparsely  settled  com 
munities  to  shake  off  a  political  leader  who  has 
no  prominent  rival  in  his  own  party,  and  no 
strong  outside  opposition,  but  when  that  leader 
has  Randolph's  advantages  it  becomes  impossi 
ble  to  contest  the  field.  His  constituents  re 
volted  once,  but  never  again.  His  peculiarities 
were  too  well  known  and  too  much  in  the  nat 
ural  order  of  things  to  excite  surprise  or  scan 
dal  among  them.  |  They  liked  his  long  stump 
speeches  and  sharp,  epigrammatic  phrases,  des 
ultory  style  and  melodramatic  affectations  of 
manner,  and  they  were  used  to  coarseness  that 


ECCENTRICITIES.  257 

would  have-  sickened  a  Connecticut  peddler. 
They  liked  to  be  flattered  by  him,  for  flattery 
was  one  of  the  instruments  he  used  with  most 
lavishness.  "  In  conversing  with  old  men  in 
Charlotte  County,"  says  a  native  of  the  spot, 
writing  in  1878,  "they  will  talk  a  long  time 
about  how  Mr.  Randolph  flattered  this  one  to 
carry  his  point ;  how  he  drove  men  clean  out  of 
the  country  who  offended  him  ;  how  ridiculous 
he  sometimes  made  his  acquaintances  appear: 
they  will  entertain  you  a  long  time  in  this  way 
before  they  will  mention  one  word  about  his 
friendship  for  anybody  or  anybody's  for  him." 

He  was  simple  enough  in  his  methods,  and 
as  they  were  all  intended  to  lead  up  to  terror 
in  the  end,  there  was  every  reason  for  simplify 
ing  them  to  suit  the  cases. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  L.  ?  I  am  a  candidate 
for  Congress,  and  should  be  pleased  to  have 
your  vote." 

"  Unfortunately,  I  have  no  vote,  Mr.  Ran 
dolph." 

"  Good-morning,  Mr.  L." 

He  never  forgave  a  vote  given  to  his  oppo 
nent,  and  he  worked  his  district  over  to  root  out 
the  influences  which  defeated  him  in  1813.  One 
example  of  his  method  is  told  in  regard  to  a  Mr. 
S.,  a  plain  farmer,  who  had  carried  his  precinct 
almost  unanimously  for  Eppes.  Randolph  is 
17 


258  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

said  to  have  sought  him  out  one  court  day  in  the 
most  public  place  he  could  find,  and,  addressing 
him  with  great  courtesy,  presently  put  to  him  a 
rather  abstruse  question  of  politics.  Passing 
from  one  puzzling  and  confusing  inquiry  to  an 
other,  raising  his  voice,  attracting  a  crowd  by 
every  artifice  in  his  power,  he  drew  the  unfortu 
nate  man  farther  and  farther  into  the  most  awk 
ward  embarrassment,  continually  repeating  his 
expressions  of  astonishment  at  the  ignorance  to 
which  his  victim  confessed.  The  scene  exposed 
the  man  to  ridicule  and  contempt,  and  is  said- 
to  have  destroyed  his  influence. 

He  sometimes  acted  a  generous,  sometimes  a 
brutal,  part ;  the  one,  perhaps,  not  less  sincere 
than  the  other  while  it  lasted,  but  neither  of 
them  in  any  sense  simple  expressions  of  emo 
tion.  Although  he  professed  vindictiveness  as 
a  part  of  his  Powhatan  inheritance,  and  al 
though  he  proclaimed  himself  to  be  one  who 
never  forsook  a  friend  or  forgave  a  foe,  it  is  evi 
dent  that  his  vindictiveness  was  often  assumed 
merely  in  order  to  terrify ;  there  was  usually  a 
method  and  a  motive  in  his  madness,  noble  at 
first  in  the  dawn  of  young  hope,  but  far  from 
noble  at  last  in  the  gloom  of  disappointment  and 
despair.  "  He  did  things,"  says  Mr.  Henry 
Carrington,  "  which  nobody  else  could  do,  and 
made  others  do  things  which  they  never  did  be- 


ECCENTRICITIES.  259 

fore,  and  of  which  they  repented  all  the  days  of 
their  lives;  and  on  some  occasions  he  was  to 
tally  regardless  of  private  rights,  and  not  held 
amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  land." 

This  trait  of  his  character  gave  rise  to  a  mass 
of  local  stories,  many  of  which  have  found  their 
way  into  print,  but  which  are  for  the  most  part 
so  distorted  in  passing  through  the  mouths  of 
overseers  and  neighbors  as  to  be  quite  worth 
less  for  biography.  Another  mass  of  legend 
has  collected  itself  about  his  life  in  Washing 
ton  and  his  travels.  The  less  credit  we  give 
to  the  more  extravagant  of  these  stories,  the 
nearer  we  shall  come  to  the  true  man.  At 
times  he  was  violent  or  outrageous  from  the 
mere  effect  of  drink,  but  to  do  him  justice,  his 
brutality  was  commonly  directed  against  what 
he  supposed,  or  chose  to  think,  presumption,  ig 
norance,  dishonesty,  cant,  or  some  other  trait  of 
a  low  and  grovelling  mind.  He  rarely  insulted] 
any  man  whom  he  believed  to  be  respectable, 
and  he  was  always  kind  and  affectionate  to 
those  he  loved;  but  although  he  controlled  him 
self  thus  far  in  society,  he  carried  terrorism  in  j 
politics  to  an  extreme.  He  could  be  gentle 
when  he  pleased,  but  he  often  preferred  to  be 
arrogant.  Only  a  few  months  before  his  death, 
in  February,  1833,  he  forced  some  states'-rights 
resolutions  through  a  meeting  of  the  county  of 


260  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

Charlotte.  A  certain  Captain  Watkins,  who 
was  at  the  meeting,  declined  to  follow  him,  and 
avowed  himself  a  supporter  of  President  Jack 
son.  Randolph,  while  his  resolutions  were  un 
der  discussion,  addressed  himself  to  Captain 
Watkins,  saying  that  he  did  not  expect  "  an  old 
Yazoo  speculator "  to  approve  of  them.  Cap 
tain  Watkins  rose  and  denied  the  charge.  At 
this,  Randolph  looked  him  steadily  in  the  face, 
and  pointing  his  finger  at  him  said,  — 
"  You  are  a  Yazoo  man,  Mr.  Watkins." 
Mr.  Watkins,  much  agitated  and  embar 
rassed,  rose  again  and  made  an  explanation. 
Randolph,  with  the  same  deliberation,  simply 
repeated, — 

"  You  are  a  Yazoo  man,  Mr.  Watkins." 
A  third  time  Mr.  Watkins  rose,  and  was  met 
again  by  the  same  cold  assertion,  "  You  are  a 
Yazoo  man  ; "  until  at  last  he  left  the  room, 
completely  broken  down. 

Mr.  Watkins  had,  in  fact,  once  owned  some 
of  the  Yazoo  land  warrants.  He  was,  of  course, 
no  admirer  of  Randolph,  who  rode  rough-shod 
over  him  in  return.  If  it  be  asked  why  a  man 
who  treated  his  neighbors  thus  was  not  fifty 
times  shot  down  where  he  stood  by  exasperated 
victims,  the  answer  is  that  he  knew  those  with 
whom  he  was  dealing.  He  never  pressed  a 
quarrel  to  the  end,  or  resented  an  insult  further 


ECCENTRICITIES.  261 

than  was  necessary  to  repel  it.  He  was  notori 
ous  for  threatening  to  use  his  weapons  on  every 
occasion  of  a  tavern  quarrel,  but  at  such  times* 
he  was  probably  excited  by  drink ;  when  quite 
himself  he  never  used  them  if  it  was  possible 
to  avoid  it.  In  1807  he  even  refused  to  fight 
General  Wilkinson,  and  allowed  the  general  to 
post  him  as  a  coward ;  and  he  did  this  on  the 
ground  that  the  general  had  no  right  to  hold 
him  accountable  for  his  expressions :  "I  can 
not  descend  to  your  level."  Indeed,  with  all 
Randolph's  quarrelsome  temper  and  vindictive 
spirit,  he  had  but  one  duel  during  his  public  life. 
His  insulting  language  and  manner  came  not 
from  the  heart,  but  from  the  head :  they  were 
part  of  his  system,  a  method  of  controlling  soci 
ety  as  he  controlled  his  negroes.  His  object  was 
to  rule,  not  to  revenge,  and  it  would  have  been 
folly  to  let  himself  be  shot  unless  his  situation 
required  it.  Randolph  had  an  ugly  temper  and 
a  strong  will ;  but  he  had  no  passions  that  dis 
turbed  his  head. 

In  what  is  called  polite  society  these  tactics 
were  usually  unnecessary,  and  then  bad  man 
ners  were  a  mere  habit,  controllable  at  will.  In 
such  society,  therefore,  Randolph  was  seen  at 
his  best.  The  cultivated  Virginian,  with  wit 
and  memory,  varied  experience,  audacious  tem 
per,  and  above  all  a  genuine  flavor  of  his  na- 


262  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

tive  soil ;  the  Virginian,  in  his  extremest  form, 
such  as  any  one  might  well  be  curious  once 
to  see,  —  this  was  the  attraction  in  Randolph 
which  led  strangers  to  endure  and  even  to  seek 
his  acquaintance.  Thus,  as  extremes  meet, 
Massachusetts  men  were  apt  to  be  favorites 
with  this  Ishmaelite ;  they  were  so  thoroughly 
hostile  to  all  his  favorite  prejudices  that  they 
could  make  a  tacit  agreement  to  disagree  in 
peace.  Josiah  Quincy  was  one  of  his  friends  ; 
Elijah  Mills,  the  Massachusetts  senator,  another. 
In  a  letter  dated  January  19,  1816,  Mr.  Mills 
thus  describes  him :  — 

"  He  is  really  a  most  singular  and  interesting  man ; 
regardless  entirely  of  form  and  ceremony  in  some 
things,  and  punctilious  to  an  extreme  in  others.  He, 
yesterday,  dined  with  us.  He  was  dressed  in  a 
rough,  coarse,  short  hunting-coat,  with  small-clothes 
and  boots,  and  over  his  boots  a  pair  of  coarse  cotton 
leggins,  tied  with  strings  round  his  legs.  He  en 
grossed  almost  the  whole  conversation,  and  was  ex 
ceedingly  amusing  as  well  as  eloquent  and  instruc 
tive." 

Again  on  January  14,  1822  :  — 

"  Our  Massachusetts  people,  and  I  among  the  num 
ber,  have  grown  great  favorites  with  Mr.  Randolph. 
He  has  invited  me  to  dine  with  him  twice,  and  he  has 
dined  with  us  as  often.  He  is  now  what  he  used  to 
be  in  his  best  days,  in  good  spirits,  with  fine  manners 


ECCENTRICITIES.  263 

and  the  most  fascinating  conversation.  .  .  .  For  the 
last  two  years  he  has  been  in  a  state  of  great  pertur 
bation,  and  has  indulged  himself  in  the  ebullitions  of 
littleness  and  acerbity,  in  which  he  exceeds  almost 
any  man  living.  He  is  now  in  better  humor,  and  is 
capable  of  making  himself  exceedingly  interesting  and 
agreeable.  How  long  this  state  of  things  may  con 
tinue  may  depend  upon  accident  or  caprice.  He  is, 
therefore,  not  a  desirable  inmate  or  a  safe  friend,  but 
under  proper  restrictions  a  most  entertaining  and  in 
structive  companion." 

In  1826  Mr.  Mills  was  ill,  and  Randolph  in 
sisted  on  acting  as  his  doctor. 

"  He  now  lives  within  a  few  doors  of  me,  and  has 
called  almost  every  evening  and  morning  to  see  me. 
This  has  been  very  kind  of  him,  but  is  no  earnest  of 
continued  friendship.  In  his  likings  and  dislikings, 
as  in  everything  else,  he  is  the  most  eccentric  being 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  is  as  likely  to  abuse 
friend  as  foe.  Hence,  among  all  those  with  whom  he 
has  been  associated  during  the  last  thirty  years,  there 
is  scarcely  an  individual  whom  he  can  call  his  friend. 
At  times  he  is  the  most  entertaining  and  amusing 
man  alive,  with  manners  the  most  pleasant  and  agree 
able  ;  and  at  other  times  he  is  sour,  morose,  crabbed, 
ill-natured,  and  sarcastic,  rude  in  manners,  and  repul 
sive  to  everybody.  Indeed,  I  think  he  is  partially 
deranged,  and  seldom  in  the  full  possession  of  his 
veason." 

The  respectable  senator  from  Massachusetts, 


264  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

"  poor  little  Mills,"  as  Randolph  calls  him, 
seems  to  have  snatched  but  a  fearful  joy  in  this 
ill-assorted  friendship. 

The  system  of  terrorism,  which  was  so  effect 
ive  in  the  politics  of  Charlotte,  was  not  equally 
well  suited  to  the  politics  of  Washington ;  to 
overawe  a  congressional  district  was  possible,^ 
but  when  Randolph  tried  to  crush  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  and  Mr.  Madison  by  these  tactics,  the  ex 
periment  not  only  failed,  but  reacted  so  violently 
as  to  drive  him  out  of  public  life.  Neverthe 
less,  within  the  walls  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives  his  success  was  considerable ;  he  inspired 
terror,  and  to  oppose  him  required  no  little 
nerve,  and,  perhaps,  a  brutality  as  reckless  as 
his  own.  He  made  it  his  business  to  break  in 
young  members  as  he  would  break  a  colt,  bear 
ing  down  on  them  with  superciliousness  and  sar 
casm.  In  later  life  he  had  a  way  of  entering 
the  House,  booted  and  spurred,  with  whip  in 
hand,  after  the  business  had  begun,  and  loudly 
saluting  his  friends  to  attract  attention  ;  but  if 
any  one  whom  he  disliked  was  speaking,  he 
would  abruptly  turn  on  his  heel  and  go  out. 
Mr.  S.  G.  Goodrich  describes  him  in  1820,  dur 
ing  the  Missouri  debate,  as  rising  and  crying  out 
in  a  shrill  voice,  which  pierced  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  hall,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  but 
one  word  to  say, —  one  word,  sir;  and  that  is  to 


ECCENTRICITIES.  265 

state  a  fact.  The  measure  to  which,  the  gentle 
man  has  just  alluded  originated  in  a  dirty  trick." 
Under  some  circumstances  he  even  ventured  on 
physical  attacks,  but  this  was  very  rare.  He 
had  a  standing  feud  with  Willis  Alston  of 
North  Carolina,  and  they  insulted  each  other 
without  serious  consequences  for  many  years. 
Once,  in  1811,  as  the  members  were  leaving  the 
House,  Alston,  in  his  hearing,  made  some  offen 
sive  remark  about  a  puppy.  Randolph  de 
scribed  the  scene  to  Nicholson  in  a  letter  dated 
January  28,  1811:  — 

"  This  poor  wretch,  after  I  had  prevailed  upon  the 
House  to  adjourn,  uttered  at  me  some  very  offensive 
language,  which  I  was  not  bound  to  overhear ;  but 
he  took  care  to  throw  himself  in  my  way  on  the  stair 
case,  and  repeat  his  foul  language  to  another  in  my 
hearing.  Whereupon  I  said,  *  Alston,  if  it  were  worth 
while,  I  would  cane  you,  —  and  I  believe  I  will  cane 
you ! '  and  caned  him  accordingly,  with  all  the  non 
chalance  of  Sir  Harry  Wildair  himself." 

The  affair,  however,  got  no  farther  than  the 
police  court,  and  Randolph  very  justly  added 
in  his  letter,  "  For  Macon's  sake  (although  he 
despises  him)  I  regret  it,  and  for  my  own,  for 
in  such  cases  victory  is  defeat."  He  called 
himself  an  Ishmael :  his  hand  was  against  ev 
erybody,  and  everybody's  hand  was  against 
him.  His  political  career  had  now  long  ended 


266  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

so  far  as  party  promotion  was  concerned,  and 
there  remained  only  an  overpowering  egotism, 
a  consuming  rage  for  notoriety,  contemptible 
even  in  his  own  eyes,  but  overmastering  him 
like  the  passion  for  money  or  drink. 

Of  all  his  eccentricities,  the  most  pitiful  and 
yet  the  most  absurd  were  not  those  which 
sprang  from  his  lower  but  from  his  higher  in 
stincts.  The  better  part  of  his  nature  made  a, 
spasmodic  struggle  against  the  passions  and  ap 
petites  that  degraded  it.  Half  his  rudeness 
and  savagery  was  due  to  pride  which  would  al 
low  no  one  to  see  the  full  extent  of  his  weak 
ness.  At  times  he  turned  violently  on  himself. 
So  in  the  spring  of  1815  he  snatched  at  religion 
and  for  an  instant  felt  a  serious  hope  that 
through  the  church  he  might  purify  his  nature ; 
yet  even  in  his  most  tender  moments  there  was 
something  almost  humorous  in  his  childlike  in 
capacity  to  practice  for  two  consecutive  instants 
the  habit  of  self-control  or  the  simplest  instincts 
of  Christianity.  "  I  am  no  disciple  of  Calvin 
or  Wesley,"  he  wrote  in  one  of  these  moods ; 
"  but  I  feel  the  necessity  of  a  changed  nature  ; 
of  a  new  life ;  of  an  altered  heart.  I  feel  my 
stubborn  and  rebellious  nature  to  be  softened, 
and  that  it  is  essential  to  my  comfort  here  as 
well  as  to  my  future  welfare,  to  cultivate  and 
cherish  feelings  of  good-will  towards  all  man- 


ECCENTRICITIES.  267 

kind ;  to  strive  against  envy,  malice,  and  all  un- 
charitableness.  I  think  I  have  succeeded  in 
forgiving  all  my  enemies.  There  is  not  a  hu 
man  being  that  I  would  hurt  if  it  were  in  my 
power  ;  not  even  Bonaparte." 

If  in  his  moments  of  utmost  Christian  exal 
tation  he  could  only  think  he  had  forgiven  his 
enemies  and  would  hurt  no  human  being  if  he 
had  the  power,  what  must  have  been  his  pas 
sion  for  inflicting  pain  when  the  devil  within 
his  breast  held  unchecked  dominion ! 


CHAPTER    XL 

BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE. 

So  long  as  Mr.  Monroe  was  in  office,  although 
his  administration,  aided  by  the  Supreme  Court, 
paid  less  regard  to  states'  rights  and  leaned  more 
strongly  to  centralization  than  either  the  ad 
ministrations  of  Madison  or  Jefferson,  Randolph 
did  not  venture  again  upon  systematic  opposi 
tion.  He  had  learned  a  lesson  :  he  would  have 
no  more  personal  quarrels  with  Virginian  Pres 
idents,  and  restrained  his  temper  marvellously 
well,  but  not  because  he  liked  Monroe's  rule 
better  than  that  of  Monroe's  predecessors ;  far 
from  it !  "  The  spirit  of  profession  and  devo 
tion  to  the  court  has  increased  beyond  my  most 
sanguine  anticipations,"  said  he  in  1819;  "  the 
Emperor  [Monroe]  is  master  of  the  Senate,  and 
through  that  body  commands  the  life  and  prop 
erty  of  every  man  in  the  republic.  The  per 
son  who  fills  the  office  seems  to  be  without  a 
friend.  Not  so  the  office  itself."  In  1820  one 
of  the  President's  friends  made,  on  his  behalf, 
an  advance  to  Randolph.  • "  I  said,"  writes 
Randolph,  February  26,  1820,  "that  he  had  in- 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  269 

vited  Garnett,  as  it  were,  out  of  my  own  apart 
ment,  that  year  [1812],  to  dine  with  General 
Moreau,  Lewis,  and  Stanford,  the  only  M.  C.'s 
that  lodged  there  besides  myself,  and  omitted 
to  ask  me,  who  had  a  great  desire  to  see  Mo 
reau  ;  that  I  lacqueyed  the  heels  of  no  great 
man  ;  that  I  had  a  very  good  dinner  at  home." 
Although  fully  warranted  in  feeling  hatred  for 
Monroe,  Randolph  remained  in  harmony  with 
the  administration  until  he  was  going  to  Europe, 
in  March,  1822,  and  issued,  from  "on  board  the 
steamboat  Nautilus,  under  weigh  to  the  Amity  " 
packet,  a  letter  to  his  constituents,  expressing 
the  intention  to  stand  again  for  Congress  in 
1823:  — 

"  I  have  an  especial  desire  to  be  in  that  Congress, 
which  will  decide  (probably  by  indirection)  the  char 
acter  of  the  executive  government  of  the  confedera 
tion  for  at  least  four  years,  —  perhaps  forever  ;  since 
now,  for  the  first  time  since  the  institution  of  this 
government,  we  have  presented  to  the  people  the 
army  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  the  person  of 
him  [Calhoun]  who,  judging  from  present  appear 
ance,  will  receive  the  support  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  also.  This  is  an  union  of  the  sword 
and  purse  with  a  vengeance,  —  one  which  even  the 
sagacity  of  Patrick  Henry  never  anticipated,  in  this 
shape  at  least.  Let  the  people  look  to  it,  or  they  are 
lost  forever.  ...  To  this  state  of  things  we  are  rap- 


270  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

idly  approaching,  under  an  administration  the  head 
of  which  sits  an  incubus  upon  the  state,  while  the 
lieutenants  of  this  new  Mayor  of  the  Palace  are  al 
ready  contending  for  the  succession." 

Had  Randolph's  knowledge  of  history  been 
more  accurate  or  his  memory  quicker  than  it 
was,  he  would  not  here  have  fallen  into  the 
blunder  of  insulting  the  President  by  a  compli 
ment.  To  speak  of  the  incubus  Monroe  as  a 
"new  Mayor  of  the  Palace"  was  nonsense,  for, 
of  all  men  that  ever  lived,  the  Mayors  of  the 
Palace  were  the  most  efficient  rulers.  What 
Randolph  doubtless  meant  was  to  brand  Mon 
roe  as  "  this  new  roi  faineant,"  this  do-nothing 
king  Childerich,  whose  lieutenants,  Calhoun, 
Crawford,  Adams,  were  contending  for  the  suc 
cession. 

Against  Monroe  Randolph  did  not  care  to 
break  his  lance,  even  though  Monroe  was  the 
worst  of  all  the  Virginian  traitors  to  states' 
rights,  and  the  most  ungrateful  for  support  and 
encouragement  in  his  days  of  disgrace.  Not 
Monroe,  but  Monroe's  lieutenants  were  to  be 
denounced  in  advance.  Randolph  liked  none  of 
them,  but  especially  hated  Calhoun  and  Clay, 
then  representatives  of  the  ardent  nationality 
engendered  by  the  war  of  1812.  Mr.  Clay  was 
Speaker,  and,  with  a  temper  as  domineering 
and  a  manner  as  dictatorial  as  that  of  Randolph 


BLIP  I L  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.      271 

himself,  he  could  not  fail  to  rouse  every  jeal 
ous  and  ugly  demon  in  Randolph's  nature,  and 
draw  out  all  the  exhaustless  vituperation  of  his 
tongue.  The  inevitable  quarrel  began  during 
the  debate  on  the  Missouri  compromise,  when 
Randolph  made  a  determined  effort  to  drive 
Clay  from  its  support.  They  are  said  to  have 
met  for  consultation  in  a  private  interview, 
after  which  they  held  no  further  relations  even 
of  civility,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  the 
language  exchanged  in  such  a  dialogue  may 
have  been  such  as  neither  might  care  to  repeat. 
In  any  case  it  is  true  that  Clay,  as  Speaker, 
rode  ruthlessly  over  Randolph's  opposition,  and 
jockeyed  him  out  of  his  right  to  move  a  recon 
sideration  of  the  bill.  The  war  between  them 
was  henceforth  as  bitter  as  either  party  could 
make  it,  and  came  within  a  hair's  breadth  of 
costing  Randolph  his  life. 

Personal  antipathies,  jealousy,  prejudice,  and 
the  long  train  of  Randolph's  many  vices  had, 
therefore,  something  to  do  with  the  certain  hos 
tility  towards  Monroe's  successor,  for  which  he 
was  now  preparing ;  but  between  his  opposition 
in  1825  and  that  in  1806  there  was  this  differ 
ence  :  in  1806  his'  quarrel  was  with  old  friends, 
whom,  on  a  mere  divergence  of  opinion  in  re 
gard  to  details  of  policy,  he  had  no  right  to  be 
tray  ;  in  1825  his  quarrel  was  legitimate  and 


272  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

his  policy  sound,  from  his  point  ®f  view.  Thig 
fact  partially  rehabilitated  his  reputation,  and 
made  him  again,  to  no  small  extent,  an  impor 
tant  historical  character.  John  Randolph  stands 
in  history  as  the  legitimate  and  natural  precur 
sor  of  Calhoun.  Randolph  sketched  out  and 
partly  filled  in  the  outlines  of  that  political 
scheme  over  which  Calhoun  labored  so  long, 
and  against  which  Clay  strove  successfully  while 
he  lived,  —  the  identification  of  slavery  with 
states'  rights.  All  that  was  ablest  and  mest 
masterly,  all  except  what  was  mere  metaphys 
ical  rubbish,  in  Calhoun's  statesmanship  had 
been  suggested  by  Randolph  years  befere  Cal- 
heun  began  his  states'  rights  career. 

Between  the  slave  power  and  states'  rights 
there  was  no  necessary  connection.  The  slave 
pewer,  when  in  contrel,  was  a  centralizing  in 
fluence,  and  all  the  mest  considerable  encreach- 
ments  en  states'  rights  were  its  acts.  The 
acquisition  and  admission  ef  Louisiana ;  the 
Embargo ;  the  War  of  1812 ;  the  Annexation 
of  Texas  "by  jeint  resolution;  "  the  War  with 
Mexico,  declared  by  the  mere  announcement  of 
President  Polk ;  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  ;  the 
Dred  Scett  decision,  —  all  triumphs  ef  the  slave 
power,  —  did  far  more  than  either  tariffs  or 
internal  improvements,  which,  in  their  origin, 
were  also  southern  measures,  te  destroy  the 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  273 

very  memory  of  states'  rights  as  they  existed  in 
1789.  Whenever  a  question  arose  of  extending 
or  protecting  slavery,  the  slave-holders  became 
friends  of  centralized  power,  and  used  that  dan 
gerous  weapon  with  a  kind  of  frenzy.  Slavery 
in  fact  required  centralization  in  order  to  main 
tain  and  protect  itself,  but  it  required  to  con 
trol  the  centralized  machine;  it  needed  despotic 
principles  of  government,  but  it  needed  them 
exclusively  for  its  own  use.  Thus,  in  truth, 
states'  rights  were  the  protection  of  the  free 
States,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  during  the  dom 
ination  of  the  slave  power,  Massachusetts  ap 
pealed  to  this  protecting  principle  as  often  and 
almost  as  loudly  as  South  Carolina. 

The  doctrine  of  states'  rights  was  in  itself  a 
sound  and  true  doctrine ;  as  a  starting  point  of 
American  history  and  constitutional  law  there 
is  no  other  which  will  bear  a  moment's  exami 
nation;  it  was  as  dear  to  New  England  as  to 
Virginia,  and  its  prostitution  to  the  base  uses 
of  the  slave  power  was  one  of  those  unfortunate 
entanglements  which  so  often  perturb  and  mis 
lead  history.  This  prostitution,  begun  by  Ran 
dolph,  and  only  at  a  later  time  consummated 
by  Calhoun,  was  the  task  of  a  man  who  loudly 
and  pathetically  declared  himself  a  victim  to 
slavery,  a  hater  of  the  detestable  institution,  an 
ami  des  noirs;  who  asserted  that  all  the  mis- 

18 


274  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

fortunes  of  his  life  —  and  they  had  been  neither 
few  nor  inconsiderable  —  were  light  in  the  bal 
ance  when  compared  with  the  single  misfortune 
of  having  been  born  the  master  of  slaves.  It 
was  begun  in  the  Missouri  debate  in  1819  and 
1820,  but  unfortunately  Randolph's  speeches  in 
these  sessions,  although  long  and  frequent,  are 
not  reported,  and  his  drift  is  evident  only  from 
later  expressions.  His  speech  on  internal  im 
provements,  January  31,  1824,  set  forth  with 
admirable  clearness  the  nature  of  this  new 
fusion  of  terrorism  with  lust  for  power,  —  the 
birth-nrarks  of  all  Randolph's  brood.  Struck 
out  like  a  spark  by  sharp  contact  with  Clay's 
nobler  genius,  this  speech  of  Randolph's  flashes 
through  the  dull  atmosphere  of  the  time,  until 
it  leaps  at  last  across  a  gap  of  forty  years  and 
seems  to  linger  for  a  moment  on  the  distant 
horizon,  as  though  consciously  to  reveal  the 
dark  cloud  of  smoke  and  night  in  which  slavery 
was  to  be  suffocated. 

"  We  are  told  that,  along  with  the  regulation  of 
foreign  commerce,  the  States  have  yielded  to  the  gen 
eral  government  in  as  broad  terms  the  regulation  of 
domestic  commerce,  —  1  mean  the  commerce  among 
the  several  States,  —  and  that  the  same  power  is 
possessed  by  Congress  over  the  one  as  over  the  other. 
It  is  rather  unfortunate  for  this  argument  that,  if  it 
applies  to  the  extent  to  which  the  power  to  regulate 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK   GEORGE.  275 

foreign  commerce  has  been  carried  by  Congress,  they 
may  prohibit  altogether  this  domestic  commerce,  as  they 
have  heretofore,  under  the  other  power,  prohibited 
foreign  commerce.  But  why  put  extreme  cases? 
This  government  cannot  go  on  one  day  without  a 
mutual  understanding  and  deference  between  the 
state  and  general  governments.  This  government 
is  the  breath  of  the  nostrils  of  the  States.  Gentle 
men  may  say  what  they  please  of  the  preamble  to 
the  Constitution  ;  but  this  Constitution  is  not  the 
work  of  the  amalgamated  population  of  the  then  ex 
isting  confederacy,  but  the  offspring  of  the  States  ; 
and  however  high  we  may  carry  our  heads  and  strut 
and  fret  our  hour,  *  dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority,' 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  States  to  extinguish  this 
government  at  a  blow.  They  have  only  to  refuse  to 
send  members  to  the  other  branch  of  the  legislature, 
or  to  appoint  electors  of  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  and  the  thing  is  done.  ...  I  said  that  this  gov 
ernment,  if  put  to  the  test —  a  test  it  is  by  no  means 
calculated  to  endure — as  a  government  for  the  man 
agement  of  the  internal  concerns  of  this  country,  is 
one  of  the  worst  that  can  be  conceived,  which  is  de 
termined  by  the  fact  that  it  is  a  government  not  hav 
ing  a  common  feeling  and  common  interest  with  the 
governed.  I  know  that  we  are  told  —  and  it  is  the 
first  time  the  doctrine  has  been  openly  avowed  — 
that  upon  the  responsibility  of  this  House  to  the 
people,  by  means  of  the  elective  franchise,  depends 
all  the  security  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
against  the  abuse  of  the  powers  of  this  government. 


276  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

,  But,  sir,  how  shall  a  man  from  Mackinaw  or  the 
I  Yellowstone  River  respond  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
'  people  who  live  in  New  Hampshire  ?  It  is  as  great 
a  mockery,  —  a  greater  mockery  than  to  talk  to  these 
colonies  about  their  virtual  representation  in  the 
British  Parliament.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  the  liberties  of  the  colonies  were  safer  in  the 
I  custody  of  the  British  Parliament  than  they  will  be 
in  any  portion  of  this  country,  if  all  the  powers  of 
the  States  as  well  as  of  the  general  government  are 
devolved  on  this  House.  .  .  .  We  did  believe  there 
were  some  parchment  barriers,  —  no  !  what  is  worth 
all  the  parchment  barriers  in  the  world,  that  there 
was  in  the  powers  of  the  States  some  counterpoise  to 
1  the  power  of  this  body ;  but  if  this  bill  passes,  we 
Vcan  believe  so  no  longer. 

"  There  is  one  other  power  which  may  be  exercised 
in  case  the  power  now  contended  for  be  conceded,  to 
which  I  ask  the  attention  of  every  gentleman  who 
happens  to  stand  in  the  same  unfortunate  predicament 
with  myself,  —  of  every  man  who  has  the  misfortune 
to  be  and  to  have  been  born  a  slave-holder.  If  Con 
gress  possess  the  power  to  do  what  is  proposed  by 
this  bill,  they  may  not  only  enact  a  sedition  law,  — 
for  there  is  precedent,  —  but  they  may  emancipate 
every  slave  in  the  United  States,  and  with  stronger 
color  of  reason  than  they  can  exercise  the  power  now 
contended  for.  And  where  will  they  find  the  power  ? 
They  may  follow  the  example  of  the  gentlemen  who 
Irave  preceded  me,  and  hook  the  power  on  to  the  first 
loop  they  find  in  the  Constitution.  They  might  take 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK   GEORGE.  277 

the  preamble,  perhaps  the  war-making  power  ;  or  they 
might  take  a  greater  sweep,  and  say,  with  some  gen 
tlemen,  that  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  or  that  of  the 
granted  powers,  but  results  from  all  of  them,  which  is 
not  only  a  dangerous  but  the  most  dangerous  doctrine. 
Is  it  not  demonstrable  that  slave  labor  is  the  dearest 
in  the  world,  and  that  the  existence  of  a  large  body 
of  slaves  is  a  source  of  danger  ?  Suppose  we  are  at 
war  with  a  foreign  power,  and  freedom  should  be  of 
fered  them  by  Congress  as  an  inducement  to  them  to 
take  a  part  in  it ;  or  suppose  the  country  not  at  war, 
at  every  turn  of  this  federal  machine,  at  every  succes 
sive  census,  that  interest  will  find  itself  governed  by 
another  and  increasing  power,  which  is  bound  to  it 
neither  by  any  common  tie  of  interest  or  feeling. 
And  if  ever  the  time  shall  arrive,  as  assuredly  it  has 
arrived  elsewhere,  and  in  all  probability  may  arrive 
here,  that  a  coalition  of  knavery  and  fanaticism  shall 
for  any  purpose  be  got  up  on  this  floor,  /  ask  gentle 
men  who  stand  in  the  same  predicament  as  I  do  to  look 
well  to  what  they  are  now  doing,  to  the  colossal  power 
with  which  they  are  now  arming  this  government.  The 
power  to  do  what  I  allude  to  is,  I  aver,  more  honestly 
inferable  from  the  war-making  power  than  the  power 
we  are  now  about  to  exercise.  Let  them  look  forward 
to  the  time  when  such  a  question  shall  arise,  and  trem 
ble  with  me  at  the  thought  that  that  question  is  to  be 
decided  by  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  this  House,  oj 
whom  not  one  possesses  the  slightest  tie  of  common  in 
terest  or  of  common  feeling  with  us." 

On  the  whole,  subject  to  the  chance  of  over- 


278  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

looking  some  less  famous  effort,  this  speech,  with 
its  companions  at  this  session,  may  be  fairly 
taken  as  Randolph's  masterpiece,  and  warrants 
placing  him  in  very  high  rank  as  a  political 
leader.  Grant  that  it  is  wicked  and  mischiev 
ous  beyond  all  precedent  even  in  his  own  mis 
chievous  career;  that  its  effect  must  be  to 
create  the  dangers  which  it  foretold,  and  to 
bring  the  slave  power  into  the  peril  which  it 
helped  to  create:  grant  that  it  was  in  flagrant 
contradiction  to  his  speeches  on  the  Louisiana 
purchase,  his  St.  Domingo  vote,  and  his  outcry 
for  an  embargo ;  that  it  was  inspired  by  hatred 
of  Clay ;  that  it  related  to  a  scheme  of  internal 
improvement  which  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  had 
invented,  and  upon  which  he  had  once  looked 
as  upon  the  flower,  the  crown,  the  hope,  and 
aspiration  of  his  whole  political  system  ;  that  it 
was  a  deliberate,  cold-blooded  attempt  to  per 
vert  the  old  and  honorable  principle  of  states' 
rights  into  a  mere  tool  for  the  protection  of 
negro  slavery,  which  Randolph  professed  to 
think  the  worst  of  all  earthly  misfortunes; 
that  it  assumed,  with  an  arrogance  beyond  be 
lief,  the  settled  purpose  of  the  slave  power  to 
strain  the  Constitution  in  its  own  interests,  and 
to  block  the  government  at  its  own  will,  — 
grant  all  this  and  whatever  more  may  be  re 
quired,  still  this  speech  is  wonderfully  striking 


BL1FIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  279 

It  startles,  not  merely  by  its  own  brightness, 
although  this  is  intense,  but  by  the  very  dark 
ness  which  it  makes  visible. 

Not  content  with  laying  down  his  new  political 
principle  for  the  union  of  slave-holders  behind 
the  barrier  of  state  sovereignty,  Randolph  re 
peatedly  returned  to  it,  as  was  his  custom  when 
trying  to  impress  a  fear  on  men's  minds.  His 
speeches  on  the  tariff  at  this  session  of  1824, 
considered  as  a  mere  extension  of  the  speech  on 
internal  improvements,  are  full  of  astonishingly 
clever  touches. 

"  We  [of  the  South]  are  the  eel  that  is  being  flayed, 
while  the  cookniaid  pats  us  on  the  head  and  cries, 
with  the  clown  in  King  Lear,  'Down,  wantons, 
down!'"  "If,  under  a  power  to  regulate  trade,  you 
prevent  exportation ;  if,  with  the  most  approved 
spring  lancets,  you  draw  the  last  drop  of  blood  from 
our  veins ;  if,  secundum  artem,  you  draw  the  last  shil 
ling  from  our  pockets,  what  are  the  checks  of  the 
Constitution  to  us  ?  A  fig  for  the  Constitution ! 
When  the  scorpion's  sting  is  probing  us  to  the  quick, 
shall  we  stop  to  chop  logic?  Shall  we  get  some 
learned  and  cunning  clerk  to  say  whether  the  power 
to  do  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution,  and  then 
if  he,  from  whatever  motive,  shall  maintain  the  af 
firmative,  shall  we,  like  the  animal  whose  fleece 
forms  so  material  a  portion  of  this  bill,  quietly  lie 
down  and  be  shorn?"  "If,  from  the  language  I 
have  used,  any  gentleman  shall  believe  I  am  not  as 


280  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

much  attached  to  this  Union  as  any  one  on  this  floor, 
he  will  labor  under  great  mistake.  But  there  is  no 
magic  in  this  word  union.  I  value  it  as  the  means  of 
preserving  the  liberty  and  happiness  of  the  people. 
Marriage  itself  is  a  good  thing,  but  the  marriages  of 
Mezentius  were  not  so  esteemed.  The  marriage  of 
Sinbad  the  Sailor  with  the  corpse  of  his  deceased 
wife  was  an  union  ;  and  just  such  an  union  will  this 
be,  if,  by  a  bare  majority  in  both  Houses,  this  bill 
shall  become  a  law." 

This  is  very  clever,  keen,  terse,  vivacious; 
put  in  admirably  simple  and  well-chosen  Eng 
lish  ;  and  the  discursions  and  digressions  of  the 
speaker  were  rather  an  advantage  than  a  draw 
back  in  these  running  debates.  Much  of  Ran 
dolph's  best  wit  was  in  parentheses ;  many  of 
his  boldest  suggestions  were  scattered  in  short, 
occasional  comments.  On  the  question  of  tax 
ing  coarse  woollens,  such  as  negroes  wear,  he 
thrust  a  little  speech  into  the  debate  that  was 
like  a  dagger  in  the  very  bowels  of  the  South : 

"  It  is  notorious  that  the  profits  of  slave  labor  have 
been  for  a  long  time  on  the  decrease,  and  that  on  a 
fair  average  it  scarcely  reimburses  the  expense  of  the 
slave,  including  the  helpless  ones,  whether  from  in- 
iancy  or  age.  The  words  of  Patrick  Henry  in  the 
Convention  of  Virginia  still  ring  in  my  ears  :  *  They 
may  liberate  every  one  of  your  slaves.  The  Congress 
possess  the  power,  and  will  exercise  it.'  Now,  sir 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  281 

the  first  step  towards  this  consummation  so  devoutly 
wished  by  many  is  to  pass  such  laws  as  may  yet  still 
further  diminish  the  pittance  which  their  labor  yields 
to  their  unfortunate  masters,  to  produce  such  a  state 
of  things  as  will  insure,  in  case  the  slave  shall  not 
elope  from  his  master,  that  his  master  will  run  away 
from  him.  Sir,  the  blindness,  as  it  appears  to  me,  — 
I  hope  gentlemen  will  pardon  the  expression,  —  with 
which  a  certain  portion  of  this  country  —  I  allude 
particularly  to  the  seaboard  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  —  has  lent  its  aid  to  increase  the  powers  of 
the  general  government  on  points,  to  say  the  least,  of 
doubtful  construction  fills  me  with  astonishment  and 
dismay.  And  I  look  forward  almost  without  a  ray 
of  hope  to  the  time  which  the  next  census,  or  that 
which  succeeds  it,  will  assuredly  bring  forth,  when 
this  work  of  destruction  and  devastation  is  to  com 
mence  in  the  abused  name  of  humanity  and  religion, 
and  when  the  imploring  eyes  of  some  will  be,  as  now, 
turned  towards  another  body,  in  the  vain  hope  that  it 
may  arrest  the  evil  and  stay  the  plague." 

On  another  occasion  he  is  reported  as  saying 
of  the  people  of  the  North,  "  We  do  not  govern 
them  by  our  black  slaves,  but  by  their  own 
white  slaves ; "  and  again,  with  an  amount  of 
drastic  effrontery  which  at  that  early  day  was 
peculiar  to  himself,  "  We  know  what  we  are 
doing.  We  of  the  South  are  united  from  the 
Ohio  to  Florida,  and  we  can  always  unite;  but 
you  of  the  North  are  beginning  to  divide,  and 


282  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

you  will  divide.  We  have  conquered  you  once, 
and  we  can  and  will  conquer  you  again.  Aye, 
sir,  we  will  drive  you  to  the  wall,  and  when  we 
have  you  there  once  more  we  mean  to  keep 
you  there,  and  will  nail  you  down  like  base 
money." 

What  could  be  more  effective  than  these  al 
ternate  appeals  to  the  pride  and  the  terrors  of 
a  slave-owning  oligarchy  ?  Where  among  the 
most  venomous  whispers  of  lago  can  be  found 
an  appeal  to  jealousy  more  infernal  .than  some 
of  those  which  Randolph  made  to  his  southern 
colleagues  in  the  Senate  ? 

"  I  know  that  there  are  gentlemen  not  only  from 
the  northern  but  from  the  southern  States  who  think 
that  this  unhappy  question  —  for  such  it  is  —  of 
negro  slavery,  which  the  Constitution  has  vainly  at 
tempted  to  blink  by  not  using  the  term,  should  never 
be  brought  into  public  notice,  more  especially  into 
that  of  Congress,  and  most  especially  here.  Sir,  with 
every  due  respect  for  the  gentlemen  who  think  so,  I 
differ  from  them  toto  ccelo.  Sir,  it  is  a  thing  which 
cannot  be  hid  ;  it  is  not  a  dry  rot,  which  you  can 
cover  with  the  carpet  until  the  house  tumbles  about 
your  ears  ;  —  you  might  as  well  try  to  hide  a  volcano 
in  full  eruption  ;  it  cannot  be  hid  ;  it  is  a  cancer  in 
your  face.1" 

After  twisting  this  barb  into  the  vitals  of  his 
slave-owning  friends,  he  went  on  to  say :  — 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  283 

"  I  do  not  put  this  question  to  you,  sir ;  I  know 
what  your  answer  will  be.  I  know  what  will  be  the 
answer  of  every  husband,  son,  and  brother  through 
out  the  southern  States.  I  know  that  on  this  depends 
the  honor  of  every  matron  and  maiden,  —  of  every 
matron,  wife  or  widow,  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  I  know  that  upon  it  depends  the 
life's  blood  of  the  little  ones  which  are  lying  in  their 
cradles  in  happy  ignorance  of  what  is  passing  around 
them  ;  and  not  the  white  ones  only,  —  for  shall  not 
we,  too,  kill  ?  " 

No  man  knew  better  how  to  play  upon  what 
he  called  the  "  chord  which,  when  touched,  even 
by  the  most  delicate  hand,  vibrates  to  the  heart 
of  every  man  in  our  country."  He  jarred  it  till 
it  ached.  The  southern  people,  far  away  from 
the  scene  of  his  extravagances,  felt  the  hand  so 
roughly  striking  their  most  sensitive  nerve,  and 
responded  by  the  admiration  that  a  tortured  an 
imal  still  shows  for  its  master.  They  remem 
bered  his  bold  prophecies  and  startling  warn 
ings,  his  strong  figures  of  speech,  his  homely 
and  terse  language.  Many  now  learned  to  love 
him.  His  naturally  irrepressible  powers  for 
mischief-making  were  never  so  admirably  de 
veloped.  He  had  at  last  got  hold  of  a  deep 
principle,  and  invented  a  far-reaching  scheme 
of  political  action. 

Circumstances  favored  him.     The  presiden- 


284  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

tial  election  of  1824  ended  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives.  Mr.  Clay  controlled  the  result ; 
he  preferred  J.  Q.  Adams  to  General  Jackson ; 
he  caused  Mr.  Adams's  election,  and  then,  like 
the  man  of  honor  and  courage  that  he  was,  he 
stood  by  the  President  he  had  made.  Those 
readers  who  care  for  the  details  of  this  affair 
can  find  them  in  Mr.  Parton's  entertaining  life 
of  Andrew  Jackson ;  here  need  only  be  said  that 
Randolph  saw  his  opportunity,  and  repeated 
against  Clay  and  Adams  the  tactics  he  had  used 
against  Madison  and  Jefferson,  but  which  he 
now  used  with  infinitely  more  reason  and  bet 
ter  prospects  of  success.  Randolph's  opposi 
tion  to  both  the  Adamses  was  legitimate  ;  if 
he  hated  this  "  American  house  of  Stuart,"  as 
he  called  it,  he  had  good  grounds  for  doing  so  ; 
if  he  despised  J.  Q.  Adams,  and  considered 
him  as  mean  a  man  for  a  Yankee  as  Mr.  Madi 
son  was  for  a  Virginian,  it  was  not  for  an  in 
stant  imagined  or  imaginable  that  either  of  the 
Yankee  Presidents  ever  entertained  any  other 
feeling  than  contempt  for  him  ;  they  had  no 
possible  intellectual  relation  with  such  a  mind, 
but  were  fully  prepared  for  his  enmity,  ex 
pected  it,  and  were  in  accord  with  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  opinion,  in  1806,  that  it  would  be  unfort 
unate  to  be  embarrassed  with  such  a  soi-disant 
friend.  The  warfare  which  Randolph  at  once 


BLIFIL   AND  BLACK    GEORGE.  285 

declared  against  the  administration  of  J.  Q. 
Adams  was  not  only  inevitable ;  it  was,  from 
many  points  of  view,  praiseworthy,  for  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  any  one  who  has  sym 
pathy  with  Mr.  Jefferson's  theories  of  govern 
ment  in  1801,  unfashionable  though  they  now 
are,  will  applaud  the  theories  of  J.  Q.  Adams 
in  1825.  The  two  doctrines  were,  in  outward 
appearance,  diametrically  opposite ;  and  al 
though  that  of  Mr.  Adams,  in  sound  accord 
with  the  practice  if  not  with  the  theories  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  seems  to  have  won  the  day,  and 
though  the  powers  of  the  general  government 
have  been  expanded  beyond  his  utmost  views, 
it  is  not  the  business  of  a  historian  to  deny  that 
there  was,  and  still  is,  great  force  in  the  oppo 
site  argument. 

Mr.  Adams,  however,  stood  somewhat  too 
remote  for  serious  injury,  and  his  position  was, 
at  best,  too  weak  to  warrant  much  alarm  on 
the  part  of  Randolph  and  his  friends.  Not 
Adams,  but  Clay,  divided  the  South  and  broke, 
by  his  immense  popularity,  the  solid  ranks 
of  the  slave-holding,  states'-rights  democracy 
which  Randolph  wished  to  organize.  It  was 
against  Clay  that  the  bitterest  effusions  of 
Randolph's  gall  were  directed,  and  to  crush  the 
Kentuckian  was  the  object  of  all  his  tactics. 
Mr.  Clay  was  Secretary  of  State,  and  could  not 


286  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

reply  to  the  attacks  made  upon  him  in  Con 
gress,  but  he  retaliated  as  he  best  could,  and 
sustained  a  losing  fight  with  courage  and  credit. 
Meanwhile,  Randolph,  soured  by  what  he 
considered  the  neglect  of  his  State,  had  not 
shown  that  attention  to  his  duties  which  is  us 
ually  expected  of  members.  He  was  late  in  at 
tending  Congress,  made  long  absences,  and  even 
declined  to  serve  at  all  from  1817  to  1819. 
Suddenly,  on  December  17, 1825,  he  was  elected 
to  the  Senate  to  fill  a  vacancy  caused  by  the 
appointment  of  James  Barbour  as  Secretary  of 
War  to  Mr.  Adams.  This  election  was  a  curi 
ous  accident,  for  the  true  choice  of  the  Vir 
ginian  legislature  was  undoubtedly  Henry  St. 
George  Tucker,  Randolph's  half-brother,  and  it 
\  was  only  his  forbearance  that  gave  Randolph 
ja  chance  of  success.  The  first  vote  stood: 
Tucker,  65  ;  Randolph,  63 ;  Giles,  58 ;  Floyd, 
&0.  According  to  the  rule  of  the  House  Floyd 
was  then  dropped,  and  the  second  ballot  stood : 
Tucker,  87  ;  Randolph,  79  ;  Giles,  60.  At  each 
ballot  226  votes  were  cast.  Mr.  Tucker  had, 
however,  instructed  his  friends  in  no  event  to 
allow  his  name  to  come  in  direct  competition 
with  Randolph's,  and  accordingly  when,  on  the 
third  ballot,  the  contest  was  narrowed  down  to 
Tucker  and  Randolph,  not  only  was  the  former 
name  withdrawn,  but  42  members  abstained 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  287 

from  voting  at  all.  Randolph  got  104  votes, 
not  even  a  majority  of  the  legislature,  although 
Mr.  Tucker's  determination  to  withdraw,  not 
announced  till  after  the  votes  were  deposited, 
was  well  known,  and  made  the  choice  inevitable. 

He  took  his  seat  immediately.  Almost  at 
the  same  moment  President  J.  Q.  Adams  sent 
to  the  Senate  nominations  of  two  envoys  to 
the  proposed  Congress  of  American  nations  at 
Panama.  To  this  scheme  of  a  great  American 
alliance  Mr.  Clay  was  enthusiastically  attached, 
but  on  its  announcement  every  loose  element 
of  opposition  in  the  Senate  drew  together  into 
a  new  party,  and  Randolph  once  more  found 
himself,  as  in  1800,  hand  in  hand  with  that 
northern  democracy  which  he  had  so  many 
years  reviled.  In  the  place  of  Aaron  Burr, 
New  York  was  now  led  by  Martin  Van  Buren, 
whose  gentle  touch  moulded  into  one  shape 
elements  as  discordant  as  Andrew  Jackson 
and  John  C.  Calhoun,  Nathaniel  Macon  and 
'fhomas  H.  Ben  ton,  John  Randolph,  James 
Buchanan,  and  William  B.  Giles. 

On  January  15,  1826,  Mr.  Van  Buren  began 
his  campaign  by  moving  to  debate  the  Presi 
dent's  confidential  message  in  public.  Ran 
dolph  opposed  the  motion  out  of  respect  for 
the  President.  He  went  back  to  the  old  stage 
tricks  of  his  opposition  to  Madison.  He  was 


288  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

again  descending  to  comedy.  The  scene  was 
arranged  beforehand,  and  he  affected  respect 
only  in  order  that  he  might  give  more  energy 
to  his  vehemence  of  contempt.  Mr.  Clay  defied 
Van  Buren's  attack,  and  Randolph  then  gave 
rein  to  all  his  bitterness.  On  February  27, 
1826,  he  wrote  in  delight  at  his  success :  — 

"As  to  Van  Buren  and  myself,  we  have  been  a 
little  cool.  .  .  .  He  has  done  our  cause  disservice  by 
delay  in  the  hope  of  getting  first  Gaillard,  then  Taze- 
well.  ...  I  was  for  action,  knowing  that  delay  would 
only  give  time  for  the  poison  of  patronage  to  do  its 
office.  .  .  .  But  if  he  has  not,  others  have  poured 
'  the  leprous  distilment  into  the  porches  of  mine  ears.' 
The  V.  P.  [Calhoun]  has  actually  made  love  to  me ; 
and  my  old  friend  Mr.  Macon  reminds  me  daily  of 
the  old  major  who  verily  believed  that  I  was  a  none 
such  of  living  men.  In  short,  Friday's  affair  has 
been  praised  on  all  hands  in  a  style  that  might  have 
gorged  the  appetite  of  Cicero  himself." 

Intoxicated  by  the  sense  of  old  power  re 
turning  to  his  grasp,  Randolph  now  lashed  on 
his  own  passions,  until  at  length,  in  a  speech 
which  exhausted  the  unrivalled  resources  of  his 
vocabulary  in  abusing  the  President  and  Sec 
retary,  after  attributing  to  them  every  form  of 
political  meanness,  he  said,  "  I  was  defeated, 
horse,  foot,  and  dragoons,  —  cut  up  and  clean 
broke  down  by  the  coalition  of  Blifil  and  Black 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.  289 

George,  —  by  the  combination,  unheard  of  till 
then,  of  the  Puritan  with  the  blackleg."  Not 
content  with  this,  it  is  said  that  he  went  on 
to  call  Mr.  Clay's  progenitors  to  account  for 
bringing  into  the  world  "  this  being,  so  brill 
iant  yet  so  corrupt,  which,  like  a  rotten  mack 
erel  by  moonlight,  shined  and  stunk." 

Not  for  this  blackguard  abuse,  but  for  certain 
insinuations  against  his  truth,  Mr.  Clay  called 
him  out.  Randolph  had  not  meant  to  fight; 
his  object  was  to  break  Clay's  influence,  not  to 
kill  him  ;  his  hatred  was  of  the  head,  not  of  the 
heart  ;  —  but  he  could  not  refuse.  Virginians 
would  not  have  tolerated  this  course  even  in  him. 
He  had  said  to  General  Wilkinson  in  1807,  "  I 
cannot  descend  to  your  level;"  but  he  could 
not  repeat  it  to  Henry  Clay  without  losing  caste. 
On  April  8,  1826,  they  exchanged  shots,  and 
Clay's  second  bullet  pierced  the  folds  of  the 
white  flannel  wrapper  which  Randolph,  with 
his  usual  eccentricity,  wore  on  the  field.  Ran 
dolph  threw  away  his  second  fire,  and  there 
upon  offered  his  hand,  which  Clay  could  not 
refuse  to  accept. 

As  for  the  President,  his  only  revenge  was 
one  which  went  more  directly  to  its  aim  than 
Mr.  Clay's  bullet,  and  fairly  repaid  the  allu 
sion  to  Blifil  and  Black  George  borrowed  from 
Lord  Chatham.  Mr.  Adams  applied  to  Ran- 

19 


290  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

dolpli  the  lines  in  which  Ovid  drew  'the  picture 
of  Envy  :  — 

"  Pallor  in  ore  sedet ;  macies  in  corpore  toto  ; 
Pectora  felle  virent ;  lingua  est  suffusa  veneno." 

His  face  is  livid  ;  gaunt  his  whole  body  ; 

His  breast  is  green  with  gall ;  his  tongue  drips  poison. 

With  equal  justice  he  might  have  applied  more 
of  Ovid's  verses :  — 

"  Videt  ingratos,  intabescitque  videndo, 
Successus  hominum  ;  carpitque  et  carpitur  una ; 
Suppliciumque  suum  est." 

He  sees  with  pain  men's  good  fortune, 
And  pines  in  seeing ;  he  taunts  and  is  mocked  at  once ; 
And  is  his  own  torture. 

Thus  Randolph  organized  the  South.  Cal- 
houn  himself  learned  his  lesson  from  the 
speeches  of  this  man,  "  who,"  said  Mr.  Vance 
of  Ohio,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  on 
January  29,  1828,  "  is  entitled  to  more  credit, 
if  it  is  right  that  this  administration  should  go 
down,  for  his  efficiency  in  effecting  that  object 
than  any  three  men  in  this  nation."  "  From  the 
moment  he  took  his  seat  in  the  other  branch  of 
the  legislature,  he  became  the  great  rallying  of 
ficer  of  the  South."  To  array  the  whole  slave- 
holding  influence  behind  the  banner  of  states' 
rights,  and  use  centralization  as  the  instrument 
of  slavery;  alternately  to  take  the  aggressive 
and  the  defensive,  as  circumstances  should  re 


BLIFIL  AND  BLACK  GEORGE.          .    291 

quire,  without  seeming  to  quit  thv.  ^ortress  of 
defence ;  to  throw  loaded  dice  at  every  cast,  and 
call,  "Heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose,"  at  every 
toss,  —  this  was  what  Randolph  aimed  at,  and 
what  he  actually  accomplished  so  far  as  his 
means  would  allow.  The  administration  of 
Adams,  a  Puritan  an.  an  old  federalist,  who 
had  the  strongest  love  ,  r  American  national 
ity,  was  precisely  the  influence  needed  to  con 
solidate  the  slave-holding  interest.  Randolph 
converted  Calhoun ;  after  this  conversion  Clay 
alone  divided  the  slave  power,  and  Clay  was 
to  be  crushed  by  fair  means  or  foul.  The  cam 
paign  succeeded.  Clay  was  crushed,  and  the 
slave  power  ruled  supreme. 


CHArTER  XII. 

"  FACULTIES   MISEMPLOYED." 

RANDOLPH  certainly  became  more  sagacious 
with  age,  but  he  did  not  improve  in  political 
Sagacity  alone.  That  his  moral  sense  was  lost 
may  be  true,  for  his  mind  had  been  dragged 
through  one  degradation  after  another,  until 
its  finer  essence  was  destroyed ;  but  in  return 
it  had  gained  from  its  very  degradation  a  qual 
ity  which  at  first  it  wanted.  Randolph  was 
a  worse  man  than  in  his  youth,  but  a  better 
rhetorician.  No  longer  heroic  even  in  his  own 
eyes,  he  could  more  coolly  play  the  hero.  His 
epigrammatic  effects  were  occasionally  very 
striking,  especially  on  paper.  He  rose  to  what 
in  a  man  of  true  character  would  have  been 
great  elevation  of  tone  in  his  retort  on  Mr. 
McLane  of  Delaware.  That  member  had  said 
with  perfect  justice  that  he  would  not  take 
Randolph's  head,  if  he  were  obliged  to  take  his 
heart  along  with  it. 

"  How  easy,  sir,  would  it  be  for  me  to  reverse  the 
gentleman's  proposition,  and  to  retort  upon  him  that  I 
would  not,  in  return,  take  that  gentleman's  heart, 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  293 

however  good  it  may  be,  if  obliged  to  take  such  a 
head  into  the  bargain  !  But,  sir,  I  do  not  think  this, 
—  I  never  thought  it,  —  and  therefore  I  cannot  be  so 
ungenerous  as  to  say  it;  for,  Mr.  Speaker,  who  made 
me  a  searcher  of  hearts  ?  .  .  .  And,  sir,  if  I  should 
ever  be  so  unfortunate,  through  inadvertence  or  the 
heat  of  debate,  as  to  fall  into  such  an  error  [as  that 
which  Mr.  McLane  had  made  in  his  argument],  I 
should,  so  far  from  being  offended,  feel  myself  under 
obligation  to  any  gentleman  who  would  expose  its  fal 
lacy  even  by  ridicule,  —  as  fair  a  weapon  as  any  in 
the  whole  parliamentary  armory.  I  shall  not  go  so 
far  as  to  maintain,  with  Lord  Shaftesbury,  that  it  is 
the  unerring  test  of  truth,  whatever  it  may  be  of  tem 
per  ;  but  if  it  be  proscribed  as  a  weapon  as  unfair  as 
it  confessedly  is  powerful,  what  shall  we  say,  I  put  it, 
sir,  to  you  and  to  the  House,  to  the  poisoned  arrow  ? 
to  the  tomahawk  and  the  scalping-knife  ?  Would  the 
most  unsparing  use  of  ridicule  justify  a  resort  to  these 
weapons?  Was  this  a  reason  that  the  gentleman 
should  sit  in  judgment  on  my  heart  ?  yes,  sir,  my 
heart !  —  which  the  gentleman,  whatever  he  may  say 
in  his  heart,  believes  to  be  a  frank  heart,  as  I  trust  it 
is  a  brave  heart !  Sir,  I  dismiss  the  gentleman  to  his 
self-complacency  — let  him  go,  — yes,  sir,  let  him  go, 
and  thank  his  God  that  he  is  not  as  this  publican  !  " 

This  was  the  best  of  all  Randolph's  retorts, 
and  remarkable  for  expression  and  temper. 
Unhappily  for  its  effect,  it  wanted  an  element 
which  alone  gives  weight  to  such  a  style  of 


294  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

rhetoric.  It  was  melodramatic,  but  untrue. 
One  may  imagine  with  what  quiet  amusement 
Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Monroe,  Mr. 
Clay,  not  to  speak  of  a  score  of  smaller  victims 
like  Gideon  Granger,  the  poor  clerk  Vanzandt, 
and  many  an  old  member,  must  have  smiled  on 
reading  this  announcement  that  Randolph's 
frank,  brave  heart  repudiated  the  use  of  the 
poisoned  arrow,  the  tomahawk,  and  the  scalping- 
;  knife.  He  was  happier,  because  truer  to  himself, 
in  the  more  brutal  forms  of  personal  attack,  as 
in  turning  on  Mr.  Beecher  of  Ohio,  who  per 
sisted  in  breaking  his  long  pauses  by  motions 
for  the  previous  question  :  "  Mr.  Speaker,  in  the 
Netherlands  a  man  of  small  capacity,  with  bits 
of  wood  and  leather,  will  in  a  few  moments  con 
struct  a  toy  that,  with  the  pressure  of  the  finger 
and  the  thumb,  will  cry,  '  Cuckoo !  Cuckoo  !  ' 
With  less  of  ingenuity  and  inferior  materials 
the  people  of  Ohio  have  made  a  toy  that  will, 
without  much  pressure,  cry,  '  Previous  ques 
tion,  Mr.  Speaker !  Previous  question,  Mr, 
Speaker  !  '  This  must  have  been  very  effect 
ive  as  spoken  with  his  shrill  voice,  and  accented 
by  his  pointing  finger,  but  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  Randolph  ever  produced  much  serious 
effect  in  the  elevated  style.  His  most  famous 
bit  of  self-exaltation  was  in  the  speech  on  re 
frenchmen  t  and  reform  in  1828  :  — 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  295 

"  I  shall  retire  upon  my  resources ;  I  will  go  back 
to  the  bosom  of  my  constituents,  —  to  such  constitu 
ents  as  man  never  had  before,  and  never  will  have 
again  ;  and  I  shall  receive  from  them  the  only  reward 
I  ever  looked  for,  but  the  highest  that  man  can  re 
ceive,  —  the  universal  expression  of  their  approbation, 
of  their  thanks.  I*  shall  read  it  in  their  beaming 
faces,  I  shall  feel  it  in  their  gratulating  hands.  The 
very  children  will  climb  around  my  knees  to  welcome 
me.  And  shall  I  give  up  them  and  this  ?  And  for 
what  ?  For  the  heartless  amusements  and  vapid 
pleasures  and  tarnished  honors  of  this  abode  of  splen 
did  misery,  of  shabby  splendor ;  for  a  clerkship  in  the 
war  office,  or  a  foreign  mission,  to  dance  attendance 
abroad  instead  of  at  home,  or  even  for  a  department 
itself  ?  ", 

If  the  criticism  already  made  be  just,  that 
the  reply  to  McLane  was  melodramatic  but  un 
true,  the  same  criticism  applies  with  treble 
force  to  this  famous  appeal  to  his  constituents. 
Without  inquiring  too  deeply  what  the  children 
in  Charlotte  County  would  have  said  to  a  sug 
gestion  of  climbing  Randolph's  knee,  or  whether 
conflicting  emotions  could  not  be  read  on  the 
beaming  faces  of  his  constituents,  it  is  enough 
to  add  that  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  Ran 
dolph's  actual  aberration  of  mind  at  this  time. 
He  talked  quite  wildly,  and  his  acts  had  no  re 
lation  with  his  language.  This  patriot  would 
accept  no  tawdry  honors  from  a  corrupt  and 


296  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

corrupting  national  government !  He  would  not 
take  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  like  Clay,  to  help 
trample  on  the  rights  of  Virginia  !  He  would 
not  take  a  foreign  mission,  to  pocket  the  peo 
ple's  money  without  equivalent !  He  owed  ev* 
erything  to  his  cons  tit  utents,  and  from  them 
alone  he  would  receive  his  reward !  This  speech 
was  made  in  February,  1828.  In  September, 
1829,  he  was  offered  and  accepted  a  special  mis 
sion  to  Russia ;  he  sailed  in  June,  1830  ;  re 
mained  ten  days  at  his  post ;  then  passed  near 
a  year  in  England ;  and,  returning  home  in 
October,  1831,  drew  $21,407  from  the  govern 
ment,  with  which  he  paid  off  his  old  British 
debt.  This  act  of  Roman  virtue,  worthy  of  the 
satire  of  Juvenal,  still  stands  as  the  most  fla 
grant  bit  of  diplomatic  jobbery  in  the  annals 
of  the  United  States  government. 

Had   Randolph,   at  this   period   of   his  life, 

v     shown  any  respect  for  his  own  dignity,  or  had 

\   he  even  respected  the  dignity  of  Congress,  he 

I  would  have  been  a  very  formidable  man,  but  he 

\  sacrificed  his  influence  to  an  irrational  vanity. 

^His  best  friends  excused  him  on  the  ground  that 

be  was  partially  insane  ;  his  enemies  declared 

that  this  insanity  was  due  only  to  drink ;  and 

perhaps  a  charitable  explanation  will  agree  with 

his  own  belief  that  all  his  peculiarities  had  their 

source  in  an  ungovernable  temper,  which  he  had 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  297 

indulged  until  it  led  him  to  the  verge  of  mad 
ness.  Be  this  as  it  may,  certain  it  is  that  his 
flashes  of  inspiration  were  obtained  only  at  a 
painful  cost  of  time  and  power.^  During  these 
last  years  Randolph  was  like  a  jockey,  thrown 
early  out  of  the  race,  who  rides  on,  with  antics 
and  gesticulations,  amid  the  jeers  and  wonder 
of  the  crowd,  towards  that  winning-post  which 
his  old  rivals  have  long  since  passed.  He  de 
spised  the  gaping  clowns  who  applauded  him, 
even  while  he  enjoyed  amusing  them.  He  de- 
pised  himself,  perhaps,  more  than  all  the  rest. 
Nrffonce  or  twice,  only,  but  day  after  day,  and 
especially  during  his  short  senatorial  term,  he 
would  take  the  floor,  and,  leaning  or  lolling 
against  the  railing  which  in  the  old  senate  cham 
ber  surrounded  the  outer  row  of  desks,  he  would 
talk  two  or  three  hours  at  a  time,  with  no  per 
ceptible  reference  to  the  business  in  hand,  while 
Mr.  Calhoun  sat  like  a  statue  in  the  Vice-Presi 
dent's  chair,  until  the  senators  one  by  one  re 
tired,  leaving  the  Senate  to  adjourn  without 
a  quorum,  a  thing  till  then  unknown  to  its 
courteous  habits ;  and  the  gallery  looked  down 
with  titters  or  open  laughter  at  this  exhibition 
of  a  half-insane,  half-intoxicated  man,  talking 
a  dreary  monologue,  broken  at  long  intervals 
by  passages  beautiful  in  their  construction,  di 
rect  in  their  purpose,  and  not  the  less  amusing 


298  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

from  their  occasional  virulence.  These  long 
speeches,  if  speeches  they  could  be  called,  were 
never  reported.  The  reporters  broke  down  in 
attempting  to  cope  with  the  rapid  utterance,  the 
discursiveness  and  interminable  length,  the  in 
numerable  "  Yes,  sirs,"  and  "  No,  sirs,"  of 
these  harangues.  Mr.  Niles  printed  in  his  Reg 
ister  for  1826  one  specimen  verbatim  report, 
merely  to  show  why  no  more  was  attempted. 
In  the  same  volume,  Mr.  Niles  gave  an  account 
of  a  visit  he  made  to  the  senate  gallery  on 
May  2,  1826,  when  Randolph  was  talking. 
Lolling  against  the  rail,  stopping  occasionally 
to  rest  himself  and  think  what  next  to  talk 
about,  he  rambled  on  with  careless  ease  in  con 
versational  tones,  while  the  senate  chamber  was 
nearly  empty,  and  the  imperturbable  Calhoun 
patiently  listened  from  his  throne.  Mr.  Niles 
did  not  know  the  subject  of  debate,  but  when 
he  entered  the  gallery  Randolph  was  giving  out 
a  plan  to  make  a  bank :  — 

"  Well,  sir,  we  agree  to  make  a  bank.  You  sub 
scribe  $10,000,  you  $10,000,  and  you  $10,000  or 
$20,000  ;  then  we  borrow  some  rags,  or  make  up  the 
capital  out  of  our  own  promissory  notes.  Next  we 
buy  an  iron  chest  —  for  safety  against  fire  and  against 
thieves — but  the  latter  was  wholly  unnecessary  — 
who  would  steal  our  paper,  sir  ?  All  being  ready, 
we  issue  bills  —  I  wish  I  had  one  of  them  (hunting 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  299 

his  pockets  as  though  he  expected  to  find  one)  —  like 
the  Owl  Creek  bank,  or  Washington  and  Warren, 
black  or  red  —  I  think,  sir,  they  begin  with  '  I  prom 
ise  to  pay '  —  yes,  promise  to  pay,  sir  —  promise  to 

pay-" 

He  dwelt  upon  this  making  of  a  bank  for 
about  five  minutes,  and  then  said  something 
concerning  Unitarians  in  religion  and  politics, 
making  a  dash  at  the  administration,  and 
bringing  in  Sir  Robert  Walpole.  Then  he 
spoke  of  the  Bible,  and  expressed  his  disgust  at 
what  are  called  "family  Bibles,"  though  he 
thought  no  family  safe  without  a  Bible  —  but 
not  an  American  edition.  Those  published  by 
the  Stationers  Company  (of  London  ought  only 
or  chiefly  to  have  authority,  except  those  from 
the  presses  of  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge.  He  described  these  corporations 
briefly ;  they  would  be  fined  .£10,000  sterling 
if  they  should  leave  the  word  not  out  of  the 
seventh  commandment,  however  convenient  it 
might  be  to  some  or  agreeable  to  others  (looking 
directly  at  certain  members,  and  half  turning 
himself  round  to  the  ladies).  He  never  bought 
an  American  edition  of  any  book ;  he  had  no 
faith  in  their  accuracy.  He  wished  all  his  books 
to  have  Cadell's  imprint — Cadell,  of  the  Strand, 
London.  But  people  were  liable  to  be  cheated. 
He  bought  a  copy  of  Aristotle's  Ethics  to  pre- 


300  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

sent  to  a  lady  —  to  a  lady,  sir,  who  could  un 
derstand  them —  yes,  sir  —  and  he  found  it  full 
of  errors,  though  it  had  Cadell's  imprint  — 
which  he  gave  to  be  understood  was  a  forgery. 
From  the  Bible  he  passed  to  Shakespeare,  drub 
bing  some  one  soundly  for  publishing  a  "  family 
Shakespeare."  He  next  jumped  to  the  Amer 
ican  "  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,"  and  dis 
avowed  all  connection  with  it,  declaring  that  he 
belonged  to  the  Church  of  Old  England ;  he  had 
been  baptized  by  a  man  regularly  authorized  by 
the  bishop  of  London,  who  had  laid  his  hands 
upon  him  (laying  his  own  hands  on  the  head 
of  the  gentleman  next  to  him),  and  he  spoke 
warmly  of  the  bishop  and  of  the  priest.  Then 
he  quoted  from  the  service,  "  Them  that,"  as 
bad  grammar.  Suddenly  he  spoke  about  wine 
—  it  was  often  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  and  he 
approved  of  drinking  it  —  if  in  a  gentlemanly 
wav  —  at  the  table  —  not  in  the  closet  —  not  in 
the  closet ;  but  as  to  whiskey,  he  demanded 
that  any  one  should  show  him  the  word  in  the 
Bible  —  it  was  not  there  —  no,  sir,  you  can't 
find  it  in  the  whole  book.  Then  he  spoke  of 
his  land  at  Roanoke,  saying  that  he  held  it  by 
a  royal  grant.  In  a  minute  or  two  he  was  talk 
ing  of  the  "men  of  Kent,"  saying  that  Kent 
had  never  been  conquered  by  William  the  Nor 
man,  but  had  made  terms  with  him.  He  spoke 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  301 

of  a  song  on  the  men  of  Kent  which  he  would 
give  a  thousand  pounds  to  have  written.  All 
these  subjects  were  discussed  within  the  space 
of  thirty-five  minutes. 

These  illustrations  of  the  almost  incredible 
capacity  for  attitudinizing  which  belonged  to 
Randolph's  later  career  do  not  affect  the  fact 
that  he  discovered  and  mapped  out  from  begin 
ning  to  end  a  chart  of  the  whole  course  on  which 
the  slave  power  was  to  sail  to  its  destruction. 
He  did  no  legislative  work,  sat  on  no  commit 
tees,  and  was  not  remotely  connected  with  any 
useful  measure  or  idea ;  but  he  organized  the 
\slave  power  on  strong  and  well-chosen  ground ; 
tie  taught  it  discipline,  gave  it  popular  cohesion, 
pointed  out  to  it  the  fact  that  before  it  could 
hope  for  power  it  must  break  down  Henry  Clay, 
and,  having  taught  his  followers  what  to  do, 
helped  them  to  do  it. 

In  this  campaign,  Randolph  and  his  friends 
made  but  one  strategical  mistake,  and  it  was  one 
of  which  they  were  conscious.  In  order  to  pull 
clown  Adams  and  Clay,  they  were  forced  to  set 
up  Andrew  Jackson,  a  man  whom  they  knew 
to  be  unmanageable,  despotic  in  temper  and 
military  in  discipline.  Meanwhile,  Randolph 
was  defeated  in  his  candidacy  for  reelection  to 
the  Senate.  Virginia  could  not  tolerate  his  ex 
travagances,  and  sent  John  Tyler  to  take  his 


302  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

place.     Deeply  wounded,  lie  was  still  consoled 
by  the  devotion  of  his  district,  which  immedi 
ately  returned  him  to  his  old  seat  in  the  House. 
He    was  also  a  member  of  the   constitutional 
convention  of  Virginia  in  1829,  and  of  course 
took  the  conservative  side  on  the  great  ques 
tions  it  was  called    to   consider.      Broken    to 
pieces  by  disease,  and  in  the  last  stages  of  con 
sumption,  when  President  Jackson,  amid   the 
jeers  of  the  entire  country,  offered  him  the  mis 
sion  to  Russia,  he  accepted  it,  in  order  to  remain 
in  England  about  eighteen   months.     Of  this 
journey,  as  of  his  other  journeys,  it  is  better  to 
say  as  little  as  possible ;  they  have  no  bearing 
on  his  political  opinions  or  influence,  and  ex 
hibit  him  otherwise  in  an  unfavorable  light.    A 
warm  admirer  of  everything  English,  nothing 
delighted  him  so  much  as  attentions  from  En 
glish  noblemen.     He  was  impressed  by  the  at 
mosphere  of  a  court,  and  plumped  down  on  his 
knees  before  the  Empress  of  Russia,  who  was 
greatly  amused,  as  well  she  might  be,  at  his 
eccentric  ideas  of  republican  etiquette.     Curi 
ously  enough,  an  American  woman,  no  less  a 
person  than  the  famous  Mrs.  Patterson  Bona 
parte,  was  in  the  palace  at  the  time,  and  to  her 
dying  day  told  how  the  ladies  in  attendance  on 
the    Empress,   coming   directly   from   the   au 
dience,  laughed  in  describing  hia  behavior. 


FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  303 

On  his  return  home,  in  October,  1831,  he 
•'  hastened  to  Charlotte  to  make  a  speech  in  de 
fence  of  his  conduct  as  minister ;  but  the  sub 
ject  which  chiefly  occupied  his  thoughts  was  the 
poverty,  the  dirt,  the  pride,  and  the  degeneracy 
of  Virginia,  until  he  was  roused  to  new  life  by 
the  nullification  excitement  which  his  own  doc- 
/trines,  now  represented  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  were 
istirring  up  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 

Jackson's  administration  had  displeased  him 
from  the  start,  but  so  long  as  he  wore  its  livery 
his  tongue  had  been  tied.  Now,  however,  when 
South  Carolina  raised  the  standard  of  resist 
ance,  and  refused  obedience  to  an  act  of  Con 
gress,  Randolph  was  hot  in  his  applause.  He 
felt  that  the  days  of  1798  had  returned.  He 
wanted  to  fight  wfth  her  armies  in  case  of  war. 
When  the  President's  famous  proclamation,' 
"  the  ferocious  and  blood-thirsty  proclamation 
of  our  Djezzar,"  appeared,  he  was  beside  him 
self  with  rage.  "  The  apathy  of  our  people  is 
most  alarming,"  he  wrote.  "  If  they  do  not 
rouse  themselves  to  a  sense  of  our  condition  and 
put  down  this  wretched  old  man,  the  country  is 
irretrievably  ruined.  The  mercenary  troops 
who  have  embarked  for  Charleston  have  not 
disappointed  me.  They  are  working  in  their 
vocation,  poor  devils  !  I  trust  that  no  quarter 
will  be  given  to  them."  Weak  and  dying  as  he 


304  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

was,  he  set  out  to  rouse  Virginia,  and  spoke 
in  several  counties  against  Jackson,  as  he  had 
spoken  against  John  Adams.  Nullification,  he 
said,  was  nonsense.  He  was  no  nullifier,  but  he 
would  not  desert  those  whose  interests  were  iden 
tical  with  his  own.  One  of  the  touches  in  these 
harangues  is  very  characteristic  of  the  taste  and 
temper  of  this  ami  des  noirs  :  — 

"  There  is  a  meeting-house  in  this  village,  built 
by  a  respectable  denomination.  I  never  was  in  it, 
though,  like  myself,  it  is  mouldering  away.  The  pul 
pit  of  that  meeting-house  was  polluted  by  permitting 
a  black  African  to  preach  4n  it.  If  I  had  been  there, 
I  would  have  taken  the  uncircumcised  dog  by  the 
throat,  led  him  before  a  magistrate,  and  committed 
him  to  jail.  I  told  the  ladies,  they,  sweet  souls,  who 
dressed  their  beds  with  the  whitest  sheets  and  un 
corked  for  him  their  best  wine,  were  not  far  from  hav 
ing  negro  children." 

He  forced  a  set  of  states'  rights  resolutions 
down  the  throat  of  his  county,  driving  poor 
Captain  Watkins  and  the  other  malcontents  out 
of  his  presence.  Nevertheless,  the  President's 
proclamation  remained  and  the  force-bill  stood 
on  the  statute-book,  —  first-fruits  of  Randolph's 
attempt  to  maintain  the  slave  power  by  a 
union  of  slave-holders  behind  the  bulwark  of 
states'  rights ;  while  the  next  was  the  elevation 
of  Henry  Clay  to  a  position  more  powerful  than 


"FACULTIES  MISEMPLOYED."  305 

ever,  as  arbiter  between  the  South  and  the 
North. 

Anxious  to  get  back  to  England,  where  he 
hoped,  by  aid  of  climate,  to  prolong  his  exist 
ence,  Randolph  started  again  for  Europe  ;  but, 
seized  by  a  last  and  fatal  attack  on  his  lungs, 
he  died  in  Philadelphia,  June  24,  1833.  Of  his 
death-bed,  it  is  as  well  not  to  attempt  a  descrip 
tion.  It  was  grotesque  —  like  his  life.  During 
the  few  days  of  his  last  illness  his  mind  was 
never  quite  itself,  and  there  can  be  no  pleasure 
or  profit  in  describing  the  expiring  irrational 
wanderings  of  a  brain  never  too  steady  in  its 
processes.  His  remains  were  taken  to  Virginia, 
and  buried  at  Roanoke.  His  will  was  the  sub 
ject  of  a  contest  in  the  courts,  which  produced  a 
vast  quantity  of  curious  evidence  in  regard  to 
his  character,  and  at  last  a  verdict  from  the 
jury  that  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  he  was 
not  of  sane  mind.  It  is,  perhaps,  difficult  to 
draw  any  precise  line  between  eccentricity  and 
insanity,  but  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  under 
stand  how  the  jury  could  possrbly_have  held  the 
will  of  1821,  which  emancipated  his  slaves,  to 
be  a  saner  document  than  that  of  1832,  which 
did  not. 

The  question  of  his  sanity  has  greatly  troub 
led  his  biographers.  He  himself  called  his  "  un- 
prosperous  life,  the  fruit  of  an  ungovernable 

20 


306  JOHN  RANDOLPH. 

temper."  So  far  as  his  public  speeches  are  con 
cerned,  there  is  no  apparent  proof  that  he  was 
less  sane  in  1831  than  in  1806,  except  that  he 
was  weakened  by  age,  excesses,  and  disease. 
Nevertheless,  it  seems  to  be  certain  that,  on 
several  occasions,  he  was  distinctly  irrespon 
sible  ;  his  truest  friends,  the  Tuckers,  thought 
so,  and  the  evidence  supports  them ;  but 
whether  this  condition  of  mind  was  anything 
more  than  the  excitement  due  to  over-indulg 
ence  of  temper  and  appetite  is  a  question  for 
experts  to  decide.  Neither  sickness  nor  suffer 
ing,  however,  are  excuses  for  habitual  want  of 
self-restraint.  Myriads  of  other  men  have  suf 
fered  as  much  without  showing  it  in  brutality 
or  bitterness,  and  he  himself  never  in  his  can 
did  moments  pretended  to  defend  his  errors : 
"  Time  misspent,  and  faculties  misemployed, 
and  senses  jaded  by  labor  or  impaired  by  ex 
cess,  cannot  be  recalled." 


INDEX. 


A.DAMS,  JOHN,  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  19  :  his  coachman's 
whip,  19  ;  President,  25 ;  Ran 
dolph's  enmity  to,  26  ;  Ran 
dolph's  letter  to,  42;  called  a 
monarchist,  66;  his  pardon  of 
Fries,  101,  144,  146;  sent  back  to 
Braintree,  66,  208. 

Adams,  J.  Q.  Randolph's  enmity 
to,  25,  284  ;  senator  from  Massa 
chusetts,  142  ;  his  account  of  Ran 
dolph  at  Chase's  trial,  150  ;  quotes 
Mr.  Madison,  152  ;  elected  Presi 
dent,  284  ;  his  theories,  285  ;  nom 
inates  envoys  to  Panama,  287  ; 
attacked  by  Randolph,  288;  re 
taliates,  289,  290. 

Alston,  Willis,  Jr.,  M.  0.  from 
North  Carolina,  217,  265. 

Armory  built  at  Richmond  in  1800, 
28,  30. 

Armstrong,  John,  minister  to 
France,  164. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  2,  5. 

BACON,  NATHANIEL,  of  Curies,  his 
rebellion,  2. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  M.  C.  from  Dela 
ware,  his  speeches  in  the  session 
of  1801-02,  66-68,  70 :  succeeded 
by  Caesar  A.  Rodney,  85  ;  a  sena 
tor,  142,  222. 

Beecher,  Philemon,  M.  C.  from 
Ohio,  294. 

Berlin  decree,  213,  216. 

Bibb,  William  W..M.  C.from  Geor 
gia,  219. 

Bidwell,  Barnabas,  M.  C.  from  Mas 
sachusetts,  217. 

Bizarre,  plantation,  3 ;  home  of 
John  Randolph,  6,  9,  21,  22,  250. 

Bland,  Frances,  marries  John  Ran 
dolph,  3;  marries  St.  George 
Tucker,  4;  taken  to  Bizarre,  5; 
influence  over  her  son,  5. 


Boiling,  Jane,  wife  of  Richard  of 
Curies,  3. 

Bonaparte,  Mrs.  Patterson,  302. 

Bradley,  Stephen  R.,  senator  from 
Vermont,  230. 

Breckenridge,  John,  of  Kentucky. 
55. 

Bryan,  Joseph,  249;  Randolph's 
visit  to,  23  ;  letter  from,  45,  46. 

Burr,  Aaron,  his  election  as  Vice- 
President,  48,  49;  his  duel  with 
Hamilton,  113-115 ;  presides  at 
Chase's  trial,  141 ;  his  valedictory, 
155, 156  ;  his  plot,  156, 159  ;  taken 
to  Richmond,  220  ;  indicted,  221. 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  C.,  Secretary  of 
War,  269  ;  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency,  269 ;  represents  centraliza 
tion,  270  ;  a  pupil  of  Randolph 
272,  273,  290. 

Callender,  James  Thompson,  his 
trial  at  Richmond,  102,  137,  138, 
139. 

Cambrian,  British  frigate,  116, 118. 

Campbell,  George  W.,  M.  C.  from 
Tennessee,  210,  222. 

Casa  Yrujo,  Spanish  minister  at 
Washington,  115, 117, 162. 

Chase,  Samuel,  justice  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  a  violent  federalist, 
82  ;  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  advising 
his  impeachment,  82,  83 ;  his  of 
fences,  96,  97,  135,  136;  is  im 
peached,  98, 102 ;  new  articles  of 
impeachment,  137, 138  ;  his  trial, 
131,  141-150  ;  his  acquittal,  151. 

Cheetham,  James,  editor  of  the 
"  American  Citizen,"  113,  114. 

Chesapeake  frigate,  attack  on,  222, 
224-226. 

Claiborne,  W.  C.  C.,  Governor  of 
Louisiana,  116,  119. 

Clay,  Henry,  Speaker,  270,  271 ;  op 
posed  to  Randolph,  274;  makes 


308 


INDEX. 


J.  Q.  Adams  President,  284 ;  Ran 
dolph's  attempt  to  break  him 
down,  285,  287-291 ;  his  duel  with 
Randolph,  289 ;  his  overthrow, 
291 ;  his  recovery,  304. 

Clay,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from  Pennsyl 
vania,  an  "  old  republican,"  216, 
233. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  his  persecution 
of  Burr,  113,  114;  his  political 
influence,  214,  233. 

Clinton,  George, Vice-President,  214, 
215,  230,  232,  233,  235. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  55. 

Crowninshield,  Jacob,  M.  C.  from 
Massachusetts,  173-175,  225,  226, 
227. 

Curies,  plantation,  2. 

DALLAS,  ALEXANDER  JAMES,  101. 

Dawson.  John,  M.  C.  from  Virginia, 
197. 

Dayton,  Jonathan,  senator  from 
New  Jersey,  142,  156, 159. 

Dennie,  Joseph,  114. 

Duane,  William,  editor  of  the  "Au 
rora,"  215,  233. 

EMBARGO,  advised  by  Randolph, 
181,  226,  227  ;  denounced  by  Ran 
dolph,  227,  228. 

Eppes,  John  W.,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  197,  248,  252. 

Erskine,  David  M.,  British  minister 
at  Washington,  212,  225. 

FARMVILLE,  22. 

Findley,  William,  M.  C.  from 
Pennsylvania,  186. 

Fisk,  James,  M.  C.  from  Vermont, 
226. 

Fletcher  vs.  Peck,  105,  109. 

Florida,  appropriation  to  purchase, 
77  ;  claimed  and  annexed  by  act 
of  Congress,  87,  88 ;  failure  of 
negotiation  for,  162  ;  proposal  to 
buy  from  France,  163 ;  the  two- 
million  appropriation  for,  165- 
170,  177, 179,  188. 

Fries,  John,  trial  of,  99,  137, 144, 
145,  146. 

GALLATIN,  ALBERT,  M.  C.  from  Penn 
sylvania,  40 ;  defends  Randolph, 
43  ;  becomes  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  50  ;  remark  about  Ran 
dolph,  55  ;  letter  from  Randolph 
in  1803,  83,  84  ;  his  report  on  the 
Yazoo  claims,  104,  110,  111  ;  at 
tacked  in  the  "  Aurora,"  113  ; 


letter  from  Randolph  in  October, 
1804,  116-119  ;  in  1805,  160, 161 ; 
interview  with  Randolph,  169; 
involved  by  Randolph,  176,  183, 
189  ;  set  aside  by  President  31adi- 
son,  235  ;  intrigues  against,  237, 
238-242;  indisposed  to  states' 
rights,  254. 

Garnett,  James  M.,  M.  C.  from 
Virginia,  197. 

Georgia,  State  of,  her  land  grants 
(see  Yazoo) ;  cedes  her  territory, 
104. 

Giles,  William  B.,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  53  :  his  theory  of  impeach 
ment,  133,  139,  140 ;  Randolph's 
associate,  142;  opposes  Randolph, 
153,  196,  198,  230  ;  opposes  Gal- 
latin,  235,  237,  238  ;  his  speech  on 
the  bank  charter,  238 ;  rejoins 
Randolph,  254,  286,  287. 

Goodrich,  Chauncy,  M.  C.  from 
Connecticut,  222. 

Granger,  Gideon,  Postmaster-Gen 
eral,  127,  128,  130,  198,  294. 

Grant,  General  U.  S.,  22. 

Gregg,  Andrew,  M.  C.  from  Penn 
sylvania,  his  resolutions,  173. 

Griswold,  Gay  lord,  M.  C.  from  New 
York,  91. 

Griswold,  Roger,  M.  C.  from  Con 
necticut,  108. 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDER,    death    of, 

113-115. 
Henry,  Patrick,  17,  280  ;  his  speed) 

at  Charlotte  Court  House  in  1799, 

29  ;   his  remark  about  Randolph, 

31 ;  his  death,  39. 

IMPEACHMENT,  132  ;  of  Judge  Pick 
ering,  82  ;  of  Judge  Chase,  82,  83, 
98,  102,  131 ;  two  new  articles, 
138. 

Isham,  Mary,  wife  of  William  Ran 
dolph,  1. 

JACKSON,  ANDREW,  284 ;  President 
of  the  United  States,  303. 

Jackson,  John  G.,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  154,  156,  159, 197. 

Jackson,  William,  editor  of  the 
"  Political  Register,"  116,117. 

Jay's  treaty,  217. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  President  of  the 
United  States,  related  to  the  Ran 
dolphs,  4 ;  hunted  by  Benedict 
Arnold,  5  ;  author  of  the  Ken* 
tucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  27,34 
elected  President,  48,  49,  50  • 


INDEX. 


309 


Randolph's  jealousy  of,  48,  49, 

60,  61 ;    forms  his  cabinet,    50, 

61,  54;  his  great  authority,  58; 
his  reforms   in  1801,  59,  60,  61 ; 
his  attitude  towards  the  Judiciary, 
60,   61,  62,  65;   his  war  against 
monarchy,  66  ;  his  policy  towards 
France  in  1802-03,  76,  79  ;  incites 
Nicholson     to     impeach     Judge 
Chase,  82,  83,  96,  97,  136  ;  his  ad 
ministration    a  chaos,   84  ;    pur 
chases  Louisiana,  84,  85 ;  claims 
West    Florida,   87 ;    declares   the 
Louisiana  purchase    unconstitu 
tional,  88,90,93;  evades  respon 
sibility,  97,  98  :  attacked  by  Ran 
dolph  on  account  of  the  Yazoo 
compromise,    105,    110 ;    "  meta 
physical    subtleties,"    125 ;     his 
"easy  credulity,"  157,  159;    an 
nounces   his    approaching  retire 
ment,  161 :  decides  to  buy  Florida 
of  France,  163,  164  ;  war  policy, 

163,  180  ;  his  plan  of  proceeding, 

164,  165, 183,  184  ;  interview  with 
Randolph,  168  ;  "  St.  Thomas  of 
Cantingbury,"  195  ;  his  message 
of  1806, 206,  208  ;  suppresses  Mon 
roe's    treaty,  212,  213  :   nucleus 
of  intrigue,  216  ;  his  character  in 
1807, 218  ;  his  proclamation  on  the 
Chesapeake  outrage,  222,  224 ;  ap 
points  Nicholson  a  district  judge, 
223;  attacks  the  Supreme  Court 
in  his  old  age,  254  ;  author  of  in 
ternal    improvements,   278 ;     his 
opinion  of  Randolph  in  1806,  284 ; 
his  theories  and  practice,  285. 

Judiciary,  the  most  dangerous  part 
of  the  central  government,  36  ; 
the  Judiciary  Act  of  1800,  62  ; 
its  repeal,  64,  71 ;  debate  on  the 
repeal,  66-70  ;  popular  control  of, 
131, 132. 

KENTUCKY  RESOLUTIONS  OF  1798,  27, 
34. 

LANGBON,  JOHN,  of  New  Hampshire, 
113. 

Leander,  British  frigate,  116,  118. 

Lewis,  William,  101. 

Linn,  James,  52. 

Logan,  George,  senator  from  Penn 
sylvania,  187- 

louisiana,  purchase  of,  84,  85, 179  ; 
its  constitutionality,  88-94;  is 
governed  despotically  by  the 
United  States,  94,  95,  118,  119, 


Lyon,  Matthew,  M  C.  from  Ken 
tucky,  107,  108. 

MCKNIGHT,  JAMES,  insults  Ran 
dolph,  42. 

McLane,  Lewis,  M.  C.  from  Dela 
ware,  292,  293,  295. 
Macon,  Nathaniel,  M.  C.  from  North 
Carolina,  40,  41,  53  ;  chosen 
Speaker  in  1801,  54  ;  his  love  for 
Randolph,  54,  57,  249,  252,288; 
advises  against  the  impeachment 
of  Judge  Chase,  83  ;  again  chosen 
speaker,  85, 158,  165  ;  driven  from 
speakership,  189,  201,  222  ;  his 
letter  to  Nicholson  in  December, 
1806,  207  ;  a  supporter  of  Monroe, 
216,  224  ;  separates  himself  from 
Randolph,  223,  234 ;  letters  to 
Nicholson  in  1808.  234,  235  ;  is  out 
of  heart,  239  ;  letter  to  Nichol 
son  in  1815,  252. 

Madison,  .lames,  author  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Resolutions  of  1798,  27,  28, 
34,  253 ;  shrinks  from  an  appeal 
to  force,  37  ;  becomes  Secretary 
of  State,  50  ;  his  report  on  the 
Yazoo  claims,  104,  110,  111; 
throws  iniluence  against  Ran 
dolph,  130,  152,  154;  candidate 
for  the  presidency,  160,  193, 197, 
200,214,  215,  218,  230,  233;  his 
management  of  the  Florida  nego 
tiation,  162,^166,  182-184;  his 
pamphlet,  177  ;  is  driven  by  Ran 
dolph  to  the  northern  democrats, 
189,  192  ;  his  "  cold  and  insidious 
moderation,"  202,  203 ;  his  mar 
riage,  203;  nominated  for  the 
presidency,  230 ;  elected  Presi 
dent,  235;  his  cabinet,  235,  237, 
241 ;  dismisses  Smith,  242  ;  indis 
posed  to  return  to  the  principles 
of  1798,  254;  Randolph's  hatred 
of,  284. 

Malvern  Hill,  battle  of,  2. 

Marshall,  John,  becomes  Chief  Jus 
tice,  62 ;  his  attitude  towards 
states'  rights,  63,65  ;  his  decision 
in  Fletcher  vs.  Peck,  105, 109  ;  at 
tacked  by  Randolph,  130,  142. 

Martin,  Luther,  141 ;  his  argument, 
146,  147. 

Mason,  George,  17. 

Matoax,  plantation,  3,  5. 

Mills,  Elijah,  senator  from  Massa 
chusetts,  262-264. 

Mint,  The,  a  monarchical  institu 
tion,  59,  60,  81. 

Missouri  Compromise,  271,  274. 


310 


INDEX. 


Monroe,  James,  privy  to  Virginian 
schemes  of  resistance  in  1800,  27, 
28, 253  ;  is  sent  to  France,  83  ;  pur 
chases  Louisiana,  84  ;  admired  by 
Randolph,  155,199,  202;  candi 
date  for  the  presidency,  160,  161, 
196,  204,  213,  230 ;  sent  to  Madrid, 
162;  his  character,  198,  199.  232  ; 
Randolph's  letters  to,  in  1806. 199- 
204;  and  in  1807,213,  214,  229; 
his  British  treaty,  212,  213,  217 ; 
Nicholson's  letter  to,  in  1807,  216- 
218  ;  is  denounced,  221,  224 ;  re 
turns  to  America,  229  ;  coquetry 
With  Randolph,  229,  230;  Ran 
dolph's  letters  to,  in  1808,  231, 
232 ;  becomes  Secretary  of  State, 
241,  242,  247;  repudiates  Ran 
dolph,  243;  Randolph's  letters  to, 
in  1811, 243,  247  ;  traitor  to  states' 
rights,  247,  248,  253,  254,  270  ;  his 
position  as  President,  268-270. 

Moreau,  General,  269. 

Morris,  Gouverneur.  of  New  York, 
his  oration  on  Hamilton,  113, 
114. 

NAPOLEON!.,  attacks  Toussaint  and 
recovers  Louisiana,  75  ;  an  impe 
rial  Dejanira,  93 ;  overtures  to, 
for  the  purchase  of  Florida,  163; 
requires  prohibition  of  trade  with 
St.  Domingo,  186,  187. 

Nicholas,  John,  215. 

Nicholas,  Wilson  Gary,  213,  215, 
230,  231. 

Nicholson,  Joseph  II.,  M.  C.  from 
Maryland,  40,  41 ;  letters  from 
Randolph  in  the  winter  of  1800- 
1801,  43,  49,  50  ;  in  July,  1801,  51, 
52  ;  his  political  creed,  57  ;  his 
influence,  80;  is  urged  to  im 
peach  Judge  Chase,  83,  96  ;  leaves 
impeachment  to  Randolph,  83; 
hesitates  to  refuse  Spanish  papers, 
86  ;  letter  from  Randolph  in  1804, 
113 ;  his  strict  constructions,  125  ; 
his  theory  of  impeachment,  133  ; 
his  proposed  constitutional 
amendment,  151,  152  ;  note  from 
Randolph,  170;  driven  on  the 
bench,  189,  201,  205,  223  ;  letters 
to,  in  1807,  209,  210  ;  an  "  old  re 
publican,"  216  ;  his  letter  to 
Monroe  in  1807,  216  ;  letters  from 
Randolph  in  1808,  233,234:  let 
ters  from  Macon  in  1808,  234, 235  ; 
letters  from  Randolph  in  1811, 
238-242  ;  letter  from  Randolph  in 
1805,  249. 


ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL,  226. 
Otis,  Harrison  Gray,  of  Massachu 
setts,  114. 

PICKERING,  JOHN,  district  judge  of 
New  Hampshire,  impeached,  82 ; 
his  conviction  and  removal  from 
office,  133,  134,  140. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  senator  from 
Massachusetts,  142  ;  opposes  Lou 
isiana  purchase,  89. 

Pinckney,  Charles,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  minister  to  Spain,  116,  118 ; 
threatens  war,  162. 

Pinkney,  William,  of  Maryland, 
minister  to  England,  192, 193,  200, 
203. 

Pocahontas,  great-great-grandmoth 
er  of  Jane  Boiling,  3,  255. 

/QUIDS,  or  Quiddists,  182. 
Quiucy,  Josiah,  262. 

RANDOLPH,  EDMUND,  attorney-gen 
eral,  19. 

Randolph,  Sir  John,  son  of  William, 
3. 

Randolph,  John,  father  of  Ran 
dolph  of  Roanoke,  3 ;  marries 
Frances  Bland,  3  ;  dies  in  1775,  4. 

Randolph,  Mrs.  John.    (See  Bland.) 

Randolph,  John,  Jr.  (of  Roanoke), 
born,  3,  4  ;  his  mother  (see  Fran 
ces  Bland),  3  ;  his  boyhood,  6,  9  ; 
his  reading,  9,  10,  13,  14;  his 
character  as  a  boy,  12  ;  education, 
13,  20  ;  youthful  hostility  to 
Christianity,  14  ;  first  duel,  15 ; 
letters  to  his  step-father,  16,  17  ; 
early  interest  in  politics,  17  ;  wit 
nesses  Washington's  inaugura 
tion,  18  ;  hostile  to' the  Constitu 
tion  of  1788,  17,  18  ;  old  animosity 
to  John  Adams,  19  :  residence  in 
Philadelphia,  20,  2l  ;  return*  to 
Virginia,  21 ;  an  ami  cles  noirs, 
21;  lives  at  Bizarre,  22;  his  ap 
pearance,  22  ;  visit  to  his  friend 
Bryan  in  Georgia,  22,  23  ;  his  first 
acquaintance  with  the  Yazoo 
frauds,  23  ;  his  return  to  Bizarre 
after  Richard's  death,  24 ;  his 
toast  to  President  Washington, 
25  ;  his  enmity  to  the  Adamses^ 
25,  284  ;  against  government  in 
1800,  27,  28,  30;  candidate  for 
^Congress  in  1800,  28 ;  his  reply  to 
Patrick  Henry,  30,  31 ;  his  states' 
rights  principles,  31,  32,  37,  38  ; 
elected  to  Congress,  39  ;  takes  his 


INDEX. 


311 


seat,  40  ;  addresses  the  House,  40  ; 
is  hustled  at  the  theatre,  41; 
writes  to  the  President,  42;  is 
censured  by  the  House,  43,  44  ; 
speech  on  the  Connecticut  Re 
serve,  44  ;  his  depression,  45  ;  his 
early  style,  45  ;  letters  to  Nichol 
son  about  Jefferson  and  Burr,  48, 
49,  60 ;  letter  to  Nicholson  in 
July,  1801,  51,  52  ;  his  indepen 
dence,  53 ;  jealous  of  President 
Jefferson,  53  ;  becomes  chairman 
of  Ways  and  Means,  55  ;  in  train 
ing  for  the  cabinet,  55  ;  his  creed, 
56,  57  ;  his  attitude  towards  the 
Judiciary  in  1801,  61,  63;  reply- 
to  Bayard,  67  ;  speech  on  the  Ju 
diciary,  68-70  ;  stops  debate,  72  ; 
is  charged  with  the  appropriation 
for  the  Louisiana  purchase,  76; 
carries  it  through  the  House,  76- 
79  ;  his  speech,  78 ;  his  vote  on 
prohibiting  the  importation  of 
negroes  in  1803,  80,  81 ;  on  abol 
ishing  the  mint,  81 ;  assists  in 
impeaching  Judge  Pickering,  82 ; 
his  letter  to  Gallatin  in  June, 

1803,  83,  84:    wants    war    with 
Spain,  84,  86,  88,  129 ;  refuses  the 
Spanish  papers,  86  ;  annexes  West 
Florida  by  Act  of  Congress,  87, 
162  ;  supports  the  constitutional 
ity  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  91, 
92  ;  never  voted  for  admission  of 
a  new  State,  91 ;  regrets  the  pur 
chase  and    prefers  capture,   93 ; 
refuses  to  confer  power  on  the 
President,  94  ;    not  the  author  of 
Chase's     impeachment,   96 ;    un 
dertakes  the  impeachment,  83,  97, 
98 ;  his  device  for  bringing  the  im 
peachment  befo.re  the  House,  99, 
100,  101;  his  first  articles  of  im 
peachment,  102,  137  :  attacks  the 
Yazoo  compromise,  106r  110  ;  his 
Yazoo  resolutions,  106, 107,  108  ; 
defeats  legislation   for    1803-04  ; 
108,112 ;  nature  of  his  ambition, 
111 ;  his   letter   to  Nicholson   in 
August,     1804.     113-115  ;     his 
thoughts    on    Burr's    duel    with 
Hamilton,  113-115  ;  his  letter  to 
Gallatin  of   October,   1804,   116- 
119 ;    wants  a  naval  force,   118, 
121 ;  his   nervous    irritability   in 

1804,  120,  123,  125;   opposes  re 
mission  of  duties,  123,  124  ;  and 
embankment  of    Potomac,    125  ; 
his    speeches    against    Yazoo  in 
1805, 125-130  ;  attacks  Chief  Jus 


tice  Marshall,  130  ;  appears  before 
the  Senate  to  impeach  Judge 
Chase,  131  ;  his  theory  of  im 
peachment,  132 ;  abandons  his 
theory  for  the  moment,  134,  137  ; 
his  new  articles  of  impeachment, 
138,  139,  151;  his  opening  ad 
dress,  143-146;  his  closing  ad 
dress,  147-150;  his  defeat,  150, 
151 ;  his  irritation,  151, 152  ;  quar 
rels  with  the  Senate,  153  ;  angry 
with  Madison,  154 ;  letters  to 
Nicholson  in  1805,  155-159:  letters 
to  Gallatin  in  1805,  160,  161  ;  his 
anxiety  about  Burr  and  Dayton, 
156,  159";  his  portrait  by  Stuart, 
160  ;  favors  Monroe  against  Madi 
son,  161,  199,  200,  202  ;  refuses 
the  two-million  appropriation  for 
Florida,  165-170  ;  interviews  with 
Jefferson  and  Madison,  167,  168  ; 
with  Gallatin,  169  ;  goes  to  Balti 
more,  168  ;  his  report  rejected, 
171 ;  his  method  of  attack,  172 ; 

foes  jnto'  opposition,  173,  181, 
82  ;  his  speech  on  Gregg's  reso 
lution,  174-179 ;  adopts  British 
views,  179  ;  professes  to  wish  for 
peace,  180  ;  his  violence  in  April, 
1806,  185-lSti ;  supports  prohibi 
tion  of  trade  with  St.  Domingo, 
188 ;  disastrous  effects  of  his 
quarrel  with  Madison,  189;  sug-, 

fested  as  Minister  to  England,^ 
93  ;  his  failure  as  a  politician, 
194  ;  his  letters  to  Nicholson  in 
1806,  196-198,  206  ;  his  letters  to 
Monroe  in  1806,  199-204;  writes 
"  Dedus,''  '40o ;  his  return  to 
Washington  in  December,  1806, 
206  ;  his  despair  of  the  destinies- 
of  the  world,  209  ;  opposes  bill  for! 
abolishing  slave-trade,  211,  212;' 
deposed  from  chairmanship,  212  ; 
letters  to  Monroe  in  1807,  213-216, 
229  ;  letters  to  Nicholson,  in  1807, 
219,  221,  224,  227;  returns  to 
Bizarre  in  1807,  219  ;  on  the  grand 
jury,  indicts  Burr,  220,  '221 ;  his 
hatred  of  Wilkinson,  220,  221; 
refuses  to  fight  Wilkinson,  261, 
289 ;  his  opinion  of  the  Chesa 
peake  outrage,  222,  224  225  ; 
urges  embargo,  181,  226,  227;  op 
poses  embargo,  227,  228,  235  ; 
asks  an  interview  with  Monroe, 
229 :  letters  to  Monroe  in  1808, 
231,  232;  supports  George  Clin 
ton,  233, 234  :  letters  to  Nicholson 
in  1808,  233,  234 ;  is  thought  to 


312 


INDEX. 


speak  with  a  view  to  waste  time, 
234  ;  his  habits  become  bad,  236  ; 
his  letters  to  Nicholson  in  1811, 
238-242  •  quarrels  with  Monroe, 
243-247 ;  his  letter  to  Monroe  in 
1811,  243-247  ;  defeated  for  Con 
gress  in  1813,  248 ;  his  private 
troubles,  249-252  ;  moves  to  Ro- 
anoke,  250  ;  his  coldness  to  Macon 
and  Nicholson,  252  ;  recovers  his 
seat  in  1815,  253  ;  his  Indian  an 
cestry,  255,  256;  his  terrorism, 
256-261,264;  his  dress  and  con 
versation,  262-263  ;  canes  Willis 
Alston,  265  ;  he  gets  religion,  266, 
267  ;  his  feeling  towards  Monroe, 
268-270 ;  goes  again  into  opposi 
tion,  271,  272;  the  precursor  of 

xCalhoun,  273,  290;  his  speeches 
in  1824,  274-281;  his  opinions 

<  about  negro  slavery,  21,  188,  278, 

304  ;  organizes  the  South  against 
Clay,  284,  285,  2H7, 290  ;  his  opin 
ion  of  Madison  and  J.  Q.  Adams, 
284;  elected  senator,  286;   leads 
attack  on  Clay  and  Adams,  287- 
291  ;    duel   with  Clay,   289  ;   his 
rhetoric,  292-301 ;  his  mission  to 
Russia,  298,  302;   his  opposition 
to  Jackson,  303.  304  ;  his  death, 

305  ;  his  sanitv,  295,  296,  305,  306. 
Randolph,  Peyton,  3. 
Randolph,  Richard  of  Curies,  fourth 

son  of  William,  2;  his  will,  3. 

Randolph,  Richard,  elder  brother 
of  John,  15, 16,  17,  250  ;  his  rela 
tions  with  the  Vice-President's 
coachman,  19  ;  lives  at  Bizarre, 
21 ;  his  death  24  ;  his  widow,  250  ; 
his  children,  251. 

Randolph,  St.  George,  nephew  of 
John,  deaf  and  dumb  from  birth, 
24  ;  goevs  to  Europe,  170,  199,200  ; 
his  death,  251. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Mann,  M.  C. 
from  Virginia,  213. 

Randolph,  Tudor,  nephew  of  John, 
24:  his  death,  251. 

Randolph,  William,  of  Turkey  Isl 
and,  1,  2,  3, 

Republican  party,  its  principles 
in  1800,  33,  34,  35,  57,  58  ;  its  pol 
icy  in  1801,  59,  60,  61,  63,  65;  ex 
tent  of  its  reforms,  73 ;  its  aban 
donment  of  principles,  125,  129, 
253  ;  and  of  discipline,  131. 

Rodney,  Caesar  A.,  M.  C.  from  Del 
aware,  85,  141.  158. 

Rolfe,  John,  great-great-grandfather 
of  Jane  Boiling,  3. 


ST.  DOMINGO,  prohibition  of  trade 
with,  186-189,  278. 

Scott,  Sir  William,  163. 

Slave-trade,  abolition  of,  189,  211, 
212. 

Sloan,  James,  M.  C.  from  New  Jer 
sey,  176, 177,  211,  217. 

Smilie,  John,  M.  C.  from  Pennsyl 
vania,  211 ;  his  remarks  on  Judge 
Chase,  100-102 ;  his  cordiality  to 
Randolph,  205. 

Smith,  John,  senator  from  Ohio, 
156,  159  ;  indicted,  221. 

Smith,  Robert,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  disliked  by  Randolph.  160, 
191,  207,  210,  211 ;  made  Secre 
tary  of  State,  235,  239  ;  dismissed, 
242. 

Smith,  Samuel,  M.  C.  from  Mary 
land,  40;  senator,  191;  wants 
British  mission,  191,  193;  his 
letters  to  W  C.  Nicholas,  191,  192, 
208;  his  "fine-spun  follies,- 208 
209,  210;  opposes  Gallatin,  235, 
237,  238. 

Spain,  resists  Louisiana  cession,  85- 
88  ;  threatened  war  with,  84,  86, 
88, 116,118,129, 162,180. 

States'  rights,  principles  of,  32,  33, 
34,  36,  37,  38  ;  affected  by  the 
Louisiana  purchase,  88-94 ;  af 
fected  by  the  Yazoo  compromise, 
106-110 ;'  connection  with  slave 
power,  272,  273. 

Stith,  William,  3. 

Stuart,  Gilbert,  his  portrait  of  Ran 
dolph, 160. 

Sullivan,  James,  Governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  233. 

TALLEYRAND,  CHARLES  MAURICE  DE, 
162  ;  his  proposal  to  sell  Florida, 
164 ;  his  instructions  regarding 
St.  Domingo,  186,  187. 

Taylor,  Creed,  198. 

Taylor,  John,  of  Caroline,  216,  237, 
244,  245,  246. 

Tazewell,  Littleton  Walker,  221, 237. 

Thompson,  John,  author  of  the  let 
ters  of  Curtius,  30,  178  ;  his  style, 
46. 

Thompson,  Philip  R.,  M.  C.  from 
Virginia,  197. 

Thompson,  William,  46. 

Tracy,  Uriah,  senator  from  Con 
necticut,  142. 

Tucker,  St.  George,  step-father  ot 
John  Randolph,  4,  5,  8;  letters 
to,  15.  16,  17 ;  Randolph  quarrels 
with/250,  251. 


INDEX, 


313 


Tucker,  Henry  St.  George,  half- 
brother  of  John  Randolph,  6,  286, 
306. 

Turkey  Island,  plantation  on  James 
River,  1,  2,  3. 

Turreau,  General,  French  minister 
at  Washington,  187. 

VAN  BUREN,  MARTIN,  senator  from 

New  York,  287,  288. 
Vance,  Joseph,  M    C.  from  Ohio, 

290. 

Van  Ness,  William  P.,  114. 
Vanzandt,  Nicholas  BM  223,  294. 
Varnum,  Joseph  B.,   M.    C.    from 

Massachusetts,  222. 
Virginia,   her  old  society,  4,  6,  6, 

11,  12. 
Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798,  27,  34, 


WASHINGTON,  GEORGE,  17, 18  ;  Ran 
dolph's  toast  to,  25. 

Watkins,  Captain,  260,  304. 

Wilkinson,  General  James,  221,  224, 
261,  289. 

Williamsburg,  9. 

Wolcott,  Alexander,  239. 

TAEOO  grants  by  the  legislature  pi 
Georgia  in  1795,  23  ;  annulled  in 
1796,  23  ;  come  before  Congress, 
102,  103,  104,  105  ;  come  before 
the  Supreme  Court,  105;  report 
of  commissioners,  104  ;  Ran 
dolph's  resolutions  on,  106-110; 
reappear  in  1805, 125  ;  Randolph's 
violence  against,  126  ;  the  "  orig 
inal  sin"  of  Mr.  Madison,  183  ; 
bill  rejected  by  the  House  185 ; 
adopted,  254. 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  callina 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

JULOS; 


12,000(11/95) 


s  UBRARV  - 

TO  r»r   v 


— «n  UEPT 


